Roommates
by TweakerWolf
Summary: Secret Santa gift to Wild Birdie! Scott and Stiles need a new roommate after Isaac moves out of the apartment. Neither of them were expecting a woman to answer the ad! Allison convinces them to give her a shot and the three of them try to adjust as life gets a little complicated... no one ever thought a Hunter would move in with a Werewolf!
1. Wait, a Girl?

A/N: As stated in the summary, this fic is a secret santa gift for Wild Birdie! I tried to keep your answers in mind as I planned the outline for the story while also having to remember to keep ships out of the story (sooo hard for me, I'm all about ships XD although, I do love friendship-only stories too), I hope you like what I came up with!

Canon divergent mixed with roommate AU for a kinda Canon story but with a few obvious changes. It all still takes place in Beacon Hills, everyone is alive (except Victoria) and gets along but they are all in their 20s instead of their teens. As the summary says, Allison first meets Scott and Stiles as she moves in with them, so that's one big change. Derek is the Alpha with Scott as his Beta (and Stiles just as a Human Packmate), along with Cora, Erica, Boyd, Isaac, Kira, Malia, and Peter. For the sake of simplicity, I am not including Liam, Corey, Hayden, Mason, and Theo since their interactions in Canon revolve around Scott as an Alpha and I'm really not sure how to write them with Derek as the Alpha (plus, I kinda dropped off the show as those characters were introduced so I'm not as familiar with them anyways). Kira is one of my faves so I had to include her as a side character at the very least! Lydia is still Allison's best friend (and is NOT a Banshee), so that means she also does not know Scott & Co. until after Allison meets them. I tried to go with a more humorous vibe while also keeping the supernatural element from the show, so hopefully my giftee will enjoy my efforts!  
I will admit that it starts off kind slow but the point of the story is that Allison is moving in with two strangers (and guys at that) and how all of them have to adjust, there isn't a larger plot that will be coming into play at all, just fyi.

* * *

"Scott, don't forget, we're supposed to be meeting with another potential roommate pretty soon," Stiles called out as he kicked a pair of dirty socks under the couch. If he was lucky, he'd remember to fish those back out before he had to do laundry… This meeting had to go better than the last one- the previous guy was just a disaster. To make things worse, they only had 5 days to pick someone and get a third of the rent from them; Stiles had lost hope and had already begged Isaac for another half-month of rent so they'd have more time to find someone… but of course he said no. So Stiles went to Derek because honestly, he thought it wasn't really fair that Isaac had only given them 8 days of notice that he was going to be leaving- and right before rent was due! Derek had been clear that he wasn't going to step in because he didn't want to be accused of having a favorite between his Betas. This was between them to work out and it didn't matter that Isaac had just started packing his stuff one morning and told them over dinner that he found a small place for himself. Then he said they'd better start looking for another roommate because the two of them didn't have enough money to make up his third of the rent. Yea, they both knew that, that was why the three of them had found the apartment together! Now it was a mad scramble to get a notice out and Stiles couldn't stop complaining. "There has to be a reason why he just decided to leave, like so suddenly!" he shouted for the third time that day.

"Maybe because you complain a lot… or because you fight with him all the time," Scott mumbled. He didn't want to sound like he was accusing his best friend but it was also kind of the truth. He was always acting as a mediator between the two of them, ever since Isaac joined the Pack.

Stiles pointed a finger at Scott, "We didn't fight okay, we bickered, there's a difference! And he's put up with me for like 10 years now- living with me for 3, why would my personality start to bother him _now_? I feel like we're actually a lot better than we used to be."

"Okay, that's a fair point but, if it isn't because of the bickering… then I have no idea…" Scott had been devastated by the news- Isaac had been living with him since high school… it was going to be weird to not have him around all the time. Isaac had had to reassure him that it wasn't because he was tired of them or that he hated being around them. He just 'felt ready' to be out on his own and he wasn't moving far away or anything. It wasn't like he was leaving the Pack, just the apartment. So Scott tried his best to be happy for his friend while wrestling with his own emotions. And while also dealing with Stiles, who was complaining a lot… Scott knew it was because he didn't like change. After all this time, the three of them had a good friendship; both of them were dealing with the sudden adjustment in different ways.

Stiles shrugged, trying to push it out of his mind, if Isaac didn't want to give them a solid reason then that was just the way it was. He had other stuff to be focusing on anyways… like taking out the trash before someone came over. "Scott, don't forget to put your dishes in the washer, we don't want anyone to think we're total slobs!" Of course they didn't want the apartment to be too clean either because no one would ever believe that two bachelors would keep a clean space. But not looking like a trash heap was also important. Scott just got busy and let his dishes pile up some times, Stiles didn't usually care. He hurried to grab a fresh trash bag from under the sink before Scott blocked his way and then stuffed as much trash as he could into the kitchen trash before taking the full bag downstairs. Thankfully when he came back up, Scott's side of the sink was totally clean and he was even wiping off the counters.

"They said they'd be here around 1 right? Does everything look okay?"

"As okay as it's going to get I think; it looks lived in and like we aren't trying too hard. Is Isaac's room clean?"

Scott nodded, narrowing his eyes in thought, "I think so… I know he said he'd be coming back for some stuff later but I do believe he got everything out of his room and into the boxes that are scattered around."

"At least he's moving out quickly, it would kinda suck if he was still taking up space and our new roomie couldn't even move in right away… that would make it so much harder to find someone willing to wait a few days."

"Yea, Isaac knows how hard it's going to be for us to find someone, he wouldn't drag out the process longer than necessary. Besides, if he was still taking up space, I'm sure you'd find a way to make him pay that extra half-month like you were wanting."

Stiles gave his friend a look, "Well yea, of course I would! It wouldn't really be fair for us to charge a full month's rent to the new person if they couldn't even be _moved in_ by the 1st, that would be rude! So you better believe I'd make him cough up the dough. Heck, I tried pretty hard as it was even though he did empty the bedroom already. Too bad-" he was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Oh, that must be them, wow, someone that's early!"

Scott wiped his hands on his jeans and went over to the door, opening it with a smile, "Hi, are you…" he let the question hang in the air as he saw who was at the door.

"Scotty don't be rude, let them in," Stiles chided as he walked over. "Oh… are you at the right apartment?" he asked, understanding Scott's issue.

"This is 6C right, you had the ad in the paper…? 3 bedroom apartment with one vacancy?"

"Yea, that's us, ar-are you the one that texted me about moving in?" Stiles asked.

"That's me, I'm Allison, nice to meet you," she said with a smile. She was a little worried by the looks of surprise on their faces… "You weren't expecting a girl? The ad didn't specify you were looking for a male roommate…"

"I knew we forgot something!" Stiles groaned. He'd been so focused on getting it into the paper that he rushed through the submission. He made sure to get the address, his phone number, and their share of the rent but had forgotten the other big detail.

Allison chewed on her lip, "Oh…" So it was another bust, just like the last place. And she hadn't even gotten in the door, again. It was 2017, was it really that weird? She knew she'd taken a gamble by responding to the ad- had it just been a missing piece of information or was gender not important? It was apparently just a piece of missing information. Great.

"Wait, how come you responded to an ad that didn't specify what kind of roomie we were looking for?" Scott asked. It seemed a little unsafe for a woman to meet up with random guys while looking for apartments… not that he wanted to say that outright and offend her on accident. It was barely safe for the average guy to meet up with random people nowadays. Scott had been through enough to know how dangerous _anyone_ could be.

"I seriously need a place to stay and I don't have time to be too picky. I've already been to like 4 places just today… two of them were a little too sketchy for me, I won't stay in a place where I don't feel safe- I do have a few standards. One ad hadn't put the rent price down and I went all the way just to have it be out of my price range; and the last one took one look at me and said no…" So far, from what she could tell, these two looked respectable and they hadn't immediately tried to hit on her or anything- a definite plus to how her day had been going.

Stiles scratched his head and gently nudged Scott out of the way, "I mean, you can come in if you want… I'm guessing the rent for this place isn't too high?"

"No, it's the perfect price, even a little under what I'd budgeted for myself, and it's not in a bad neighborhood or anything!"

"And you don't feel weird… about rooming with 2 dudes?" Stiles asked, just needing to double-check.

She shrugged, walking into the living room, "Not if you two aren't weird about it. Obviously that means you can't just barge into the bathroom but, would you have done that with a guy that you didn't know?"

"I do have a habit of doing that… but it's because I've known Scott for like… ever, so we're like brothers. Isaac I've known for like half-of-forever now so we're pretty familiar too. But the bathroom has a lock on it and I won't pick it or anything. And I won't do that with bedrooms- Isaac was a stickler when it came to that. If the door is closed, I knock and-"

"You never knock when my door is closed!" Scott huffed.

Stiles rolled his eyes, "I know your habits Scott, I only barge in if it's important. Isaac needed his space a lot more though and Allison I don't know at all so I'd feel really weird just barging into her room, obviously."

Allison slowly nodded as she listened to them, she could tell this would be how they always were. There were no fake greetings or overly formal discussions- this was truly them. She definitely appreciated it, it would make it easier to decide if she could live with them or not. "So, as long as no one comes in without knocking, it should be fine… although, how do I know you two aren't a pair of weirdos? Why is the third roommate moving out?" Allison wasn't really worried about it, she knew how to handle herself… after having a few Werewolves try to kill her, surely two normal guys wouldn't give her any trouble. Not that they needed to know about her family's history!

Scott shrugged, "The only thing Isaac said was that he's ready to live on his own. But we're still friends, it's not like we'll never see him again, so I don't think it was our habits or anything."

"As for the part about us being weirdos, I mean… obviously you shouldn't just take our word for it… and neither of us are dating right now so you can't just ask a girlfriend or boyfriend about us… Um…?" Stiles turned to Scott, unsure where to go next. How could they really tell someone that they weren't crazy psychos without sounding like a crazy psycho that's trying to lie?

"I'm sure Derek will vouch for us, and the girls. If she moves in, she'll get to know them eventually anyways right?"

Stiles gave him an uncertain look, "I'm not sure if Derek is the best person for her to meet first… He's pretty intimidating…"

It was Scott's turn to roll his eyes, "He can't help it, that's just his face."

The fact that they hadn't tripped over themselves to convince her they were Good Guys or gotten offended pretty much settled it for her. She stepped in, wanting to change the subject before they got too carried away. She could tell that they'd get lost on the subject of just which friend she should meet first and why. "I kinda hate to rush things along," Allison said before either of them could make another comment, "but I have one more place to look at after this."

"Oh, right! Um, if you're really serious about moving in-"

"Yea, if we haven't scared you away already with our antics," Stiles interrupted. "It's like this all the time, I'll warn you now."

Scott continued like he hadn't said anything, "We can show you the room and let you know a little about the place."

"That would be great, thank you." She followed them through the kitchen and down the hallway, listening as they explained a bit about the apartment and the neighbors. Allison's potential room was slightly separated from the others, a left turn down the hallway, with the bathroom between her room and the other two, which were a right turn down the hallway. Of course she didn't want to be the 'outsider' roomie, holing herself up in her room all the time and not getting to know her new roommates… but she was still glad that there was a slight degree of separation, just because she didn't really know them. Allison was used to keeping secrets and having her own space, that bedroom gave her at least a bit of that. The room wasn't the smallest either, which was awesome! The first place she'd gone to, they'd tried to stuff her in the smallest room… and she could tell that one of the guys had quickly moved his stuff so he could have the bigger, vacant room. Of course it was only fair that someone who'd been living there longer would have dibs on a bigger room if they wanted it, but it still irked her. These guys were attached to the rooms they already had and saw no reason to change, not that their rooms were drastically smaller anyways.

"Um, just a warning I guess," Scott continued as they went back out to the living room, "Isaac complained a few times about the people above him. Nothing huge like a loud fight or a party but just something that kept him up a few times."

"Yea, I never heard a thing and our rooms aren't _that_ far apart. So it wasn't anything super loud."

Neither of them wanted to admit that Isaac just had sensitive ears and had a harder time turning them off compared to Scott. But just in case it was something that a normal person could hear, might as well mention it to forewarn her. Things like that could be a deal breaker for some.

"Eh, those kinds of things happen when you live in an apartment and have people around you. As long as it isn't all the time, I'll be fine. I really do like this place, it isn't too far from where I work, it's not a bad part of town, I'm not getting the smallest room… and you two don't seem all that bad. I did promise that I'd meet with someone else though and I don't want to be rude…"

"We get that, they are taking time out of their day to meet with you, you don't want to cancel. I'm not going to lie to you either and say that we've already got some offers; you're the first person that's come by and hasn't given us weird vibes," Scott told her. "There's no pressure for you to answer right now or risk missing out."

"Yea, and we aren't meeting with anyone else today either, not unless someone contacts us at the last minute. Just as long as you text us with an answer soonish?"

Allison nodded, "Oh, of course, I wouldn't leave you hanging. Actually, I was thinking of giving you a down payment? As an incentive not to give away the room just yet. I do really like the place and unless I really _love_ the next apartment, I'm sure I'll be coming back. I promise that I have a steady income and won't be late on my third of the rent. I'm not loud or invasive, I try to be friendly too so I won't flat out ignore you guys or anything."

Stiles smiled, "That sounds perfect. We can message our friends if you want? I figure it's probably a good idea to hear some secondary opinions of us before you move in… Moving in with complete strangers can be risky. At least by meeting our friends, you can get a better idea of how we are."

"I think I already have a pretty good idea, you two had a good back-and-forth going there the whole time. But yea, it would be nice to see your friends. Wouldn't it be awkward if we sign all the paperwork to put me on the lease and then it turns out I've had a brief but really awful date with one of your friends?" she chuckled. She hadn't had any bad dates but she didn't feel right turning down his offer… they both seemed real adamant about her getting to know them before making any serious decisions. It was the least she could do to humor them since there was a high possibility that she'd be moving in anyways. "But I am completely serious about the money, I have $100 with me right now."

Scott and Stiles looked at each other, surprised, she was serious about the down payment. Scott slowly nodded, "Yea, we can take it. Like I said, we don't really have anyone else that seems interested but we won't show the room to anyone else until we've heard from you. And of course we won't keep it if you decide to go with a different place, you can come back to pick it up, promise."

"Cool, you'll hear from me by dinner time for sure," Allison assured them as she reached into her purse for the money. She was all smiles as she handed over a handful of twenties, honestly feeling like she'd found the perfect place. "I can get the rest to you if and when I fully move in, which will be well before the first of next month for sure."

"Sounds good. Text us if you think of any other questions or just to let us know if you'll be taking the apartment- as you can see, it's all packed up so you can move in whenever you're ready," Scott told her.

"The sooner, the better honestly- I'm taking up space in my friend's place and her parents just sold the house so I've got to vacate… That's why I'm in a hurry and can't afford to be all that picky. Thanks for the quick tour, and for accepting a surprise-it's-a-girl roomie." She headed to the door and turned around, frowning as she realized she didn't know who to say bye to, "I know he's Scott but I didn't catch your name…"

"OH! My bad, I get distracted easily and we completely skipped the introductions, sorry! I'm Stiles. I was the one you were texting… and I apparently forgot to introduce myself via text too…"

"That's okay, I obviously forgot to tell you my name since, if I had, you would've known to expect a girl. I don't know many guys with the name Allison," she laughed. "So I'll save you as a contact and get back to you, it was nice meeting you both."

After she left, Scott and Stiles moved to the couch to discuss their next move. There was a chance that she wasn't going to move in but she seemed pretty set on living with them.

"Are we really prepared for a girl to be living with us?" Stiles asked. Both of them were pretty awkward around girls but if he was being honest, things hadn't felt awkward with Allison. At the very least they hadn't scared her away!

Scott nodded, "I mean, we've gotten used to girls being around anyways. We've all spent time at Derek's place, before we found this apartment. Cora, Malia, Erica, and then Kira, were always around and it wasn't weird."

"Yea but they're Pack… especially for you, being a Were, you feel close with them. _I_ just don't have a lot of boundaries so it wasn't weird for me to share space with them… and once they got used to me being around, I became a part of the Pack too. Allison is an _actual_ stranger."

"Yea but things weren't awkward and it was our very first meeting, surely that shows that the three of us can get along, right?" Scott countered. "Besides, she agreed to meet with our friends, we should probably set that up before she fully agrees to move in… so maybe tomorrow?" Scott had definitely learned to trust his instincts after Derek finally stepped up and taught him something. Things just seemed to click with Allison- which was beyond rare!

Stiles nodded in agreement, "Tomorrow sounds good. That way she doesn't have to give us all the money and then after meeting everyone, decides it's all too much and then she wants out. Which means, by Thursday we'll know for sure if we have a new roomie or not!" He pulled out his phone and messaged Malia about inviting everyone over to meet someone. Out of everyone in the Hale Pack (aside from Scott of course), he got along with her best… even though they had almost nothing in common. But she accepted him as he was and listened to him whenever he had something to say. And she was stubborn enough to make sure that all the others would actually come.

"What do we do if they don't like her?" Scott asked. He wasn't sure why any of them might not like Allison- he hadn't picked up any suspicious scents so she definitely wasn't a Were in disguise, but there was always a chance.

"We tell them that they have to put up with her because she's the best candidate… period. The first guy was a drug dealer, you said so-"

"I don't know for sure that he was a drug _dealer_ … just that he smelled like a few different kinds of drugs. And after you casually mentioned that you're a deputy, his heart started to race and he made an excuse to leave right after that."

"Close enough, there was no reason for him to get nervous about me being in law enforcement unless he knows he's done something to break the law. And the second guy didn't have any money so we couldn't pick him, there is absolutely no way we can split the difference of Isaac's portion. I mean, I might've been willing to try it for a month but you said he lied when we asked about him having a reliable income… that probably means that he jumps from place to place, not giving anyone money to pay rent until they kick him out. So your wolf-y sense helped weed out two bad potentials."

"And what was wrong with the third guy? He seemed real nice and he didn't smell like drugs or anything."

Stiles sighed, "He had gang tattoos Scott. Even if he didn't purposefully come here to try and scope out my place, which I do doubt, I didn't recognize him at all, it would've gotten ugly when he found out what I did… or if Dad came over to visit and he recognized him as the sheriff. You can argue that maybe he wasn't in the gang anymore but he was also wearing the right colors. We aren't taking that chance, so he's out too. If that means we're rooming with a girl, so be it. It might be weird but we're all willing to give it a try and she gave us a down payment so we know she has money. So that means the Pack has to like her, or at least tolerate her. I mean, I'm assuming since you've kept quiet there's nothing you're not saying right? No weird feelings or smells or anything?"

Scott gave him a half smile, "I was just thinking about the same thing… it's weird but I got nothing but good vibes from her, like nothing felt off at all- is that weird?"

"A bit, I mean, after all our close-calls it's rare to find someone that doesn't raise a hackle or two. And those few that we have found that matches our 'vibe' just kinda automatically get pulled into the Pack… one way or another. I mean, how crazy is it that Deaton was totally in the secret circle well before you started working there and by coincidence you get turned. Our parents got sucked in of course and thank goodness they adjusted well enough. Cora's friend Brett finally earned a trusted spot in the Humans-in-the-know group like me… but that's about it, I mean… we're kinda tight knit. Like the Cullens now that I think about it…" Stiles shuddered to himself as he realized the slight resemblance. They all hung out together and didn't really try to mingle with other people all that often; it'd been that way since Scott had joined the Pack back in high school.

"Yea well, Derek has trust issues, which is understandable- not a lot of people react well to the whole supernatural secret thing," Scott admitted. Being supernatural also made it hard to trust people, especially when you could tell when someone was lying, or even where they'd been judging by the scents on their clothes. Once you started picking up on those things, it was hard to turn off. "So with that in mind… it might be a good thing to have all the others come by, so they can get a reading on her too. I trust my instincts but it would be good to get a second opinion about her, just in case I missed something."

"Well, unless it's a big deal, I'm willing to accept a few 'suspicious' scents- we really need her."

"I completely agree at this point, Allison is the keeper and we just have to convince our Packmates that she's acceptable." Scott felt like that was easier said than done. Derek liked to keep their circle pretty small because the aforementioned deep-rooted trust issues. He'd only taken Scott in because he had too, because of Peter. And Peter was unpredictable honestly but after he lost his Alpha spark he wasn't as insane, which was good. But because he was older than the rest of them, it wasn't like he really made any effort to be friendly with them. Malia was blunt and harsh so she didn't make friends easily and Cora was only slightly better… Boyd and Isaac were fairly quiet so they were easy to get along with but it was hard to truly become their friend. Erica wasn't as bad as the others; she liked to make friends… just as long as they didn't say something to offend her… Scott's only hope was Kira since she was truly just a warm, bubbly person- it hadn't even taken her long to weasel her way into Derek's trust and before anyone even realized it, she was a part of the Pack. If Kira liked Allison, Scott and Stiles could convince her to help bring everyone else around… and if for some reason, she didn't like Allison, well, that would be a huge warning sign.

"Scott, I can see the worry on your face, it'll be fine. Everyone in the Pack knows that we need someone to move in with us now that Isaac is moving out. I'm a deputy with academy training and you're a Were with wolf-y senses… I think they trust us to make a good choice. It's mostly a formality and it's to put Allison at ease as well. Once she sees the kind of people we hang out with, she'll know we aren't weirdos. Or… she'll realize that we _are_ weirdos but that we're weirdos that she can get along with, not the ones that you cross the street to avoid."

"And you aren't worried that Malia or Cora will scare her off with their blunt personalities?"

Stiles turned away, looking at the ceiling, "I didn't say that… I'm just hoping that Kira's shining personality will make up for it."

"You and me both…" Scott sighed. "Well, I've got to head to work for a few hours, let me know what Allison says. I'll see you for dinner."

-later-

"Dude, looks like we're set!" Stiles called out as his friend walked in the door.

"Why, did Allison text?"

"Oh yea, it didn't go well at the other place," Stiles told him.

Scott frowned at him, "Don't be happy that things went badly… that makes you look like a terrible person."

"She isn't here to see it, besides, she wanted to move in here remember? I don't think she really cares that it went badly because that made her decision even easier. Anyways, so what happened was that the lady at the other place found someone to fill the vacancy like yesterday and she never told Allison! So she goes all the way there to look at the place and the new roommate is the one that answered the door and both of them were very confused… They had to wait around for like an hour for the original renter to come back from work to explain everything. Like, how pissed would you be if you were looking for a place and you head all the way to a place just to find out that the person never updated and said they found someone… let alone, she made plans with Allison in advance and then this other girl shows up and steals the spot out from under her."

"Okay, that is pretty harsh… what did you say back? Please don't tell me you were insensitive…"

Stiles gaped at him, "Me, insensitive? I'm sarcastic Scott, not tactless. I told her that all of our friends already wanted to meet her- which, by the way, dinner is here tomorrow. I know Malia, Derek, and Kira are coming for sure… I think Isaac will stop by because he wants some of his boxes, and maybe Cora too. Boyd, and Erica are busy and Peter knows he has no real reason to show up. Allison said she'd be ready to move in tomorrow although from the sounds of it, she doesn't have all of her stuff ready? I'm not sure what exactly she meant but I'm sure we'll find out. She'll be here after I get off work and we can go over the chore chart and stuff."

"You and your chore chart… why not let her get moved in first?" Scott teased.

"Organization is key Scott! The sooner we explain the chart the sooner she can get the hang of it, she needs to know we aren't slobs and we need her to know that she has to pull her own weight too."

Scott laughed and went to take a shower, letting Stiles finish dinner. Letting a stranger into their lives was going to be new… aside from when Kira moved into town back in their senior year, they hadn't really dealt with strangers… Scott had 1 coworker besides Dr. Deaton and they had opposite hours so he rarely saw them. Stiles grew up in the station so he knew all of the other deputies, not that any of them really came over to 'hang out' after a shift anyways. The rest of them just depended on each other and ignored people that weren't Pack. Stiles might try to downplay it, or maybe he didn't really understand since he was only Human but… inviting someone into their apartment also meant exposing the Pack to a stranger too. If they made the wrong choice, it could hurt the Pack and Scott was feeling pretty nervous about that.


	2. Meeting the Pack

A/N: So, I probably went overboard and did too much casual conversation in the beginning but like I said before, the point of the story is that they are all going to be living together so I didn't want to skimp on the 'real life' details of what it might be like if you move in with people you don't know. But I promise, that isn't the only thing in the chapter, the whole second half is the Pack coming over and meeting Allison :D I could almost cut this chapter in half since it's so long but I didn't want the first part to stand on it's own as a chapter because that felt a little boring... so it's all together lol. It's a little hectic since there are so many people and they are all talking to each other but I think it feels real. If you're with a group of friends, you'll all talking to each other and over each other XD that's just the way it is. I did try to keep all the characters as accurate as I could but since they weren't all alive at the same time, I did have to guess at how they'd interact, as well as keeping my slightly altered history in mind too! Anyways, I hope you like the Pack interactions and for sure the next chapter should be interesting ;)

* * *

*Wednesday Afternoon*

Stiles rushed home, knowing that he was running late… debriefing took longer than usual and Allison liked to be early… they were probably waiting on him. But as he came up to the front door, there she was, standing awkwardly beside the building. "Hey, Scott didn't let you in? He's supposed to be home…"

"I buzzed him but he didn't answer… oh, you're a deputy?" she asked with a tilted head. She almost hadn't recognized him, he'd walked around the corner with such purpose. He really didn't seem like the type to wear a uniform, he was so _not_ rigid. But she saw him start to relax when he noticed her- it must be the 'cop mode' she heard people talking about all the time. Strange how he hadn't mentioned it yesterday when she'd asked if they were weirdos; most people would consider an officer to be a trustworthy person. They probably weren't the kind of people that let their profession speak for them and that was why they wanted her to meet their friends more than anything.

He looked down at himself, even with his cover on, his duty belt was still visible from the top of his work bag and the pants were a dead giveaway, they were an unusual green color. "Yup, newbie deputy, that's me. Oh that's right, we never went over that yesterday did we?" Stiles took out his key, opening the door open for her. After seeing the look of surprise on her face, Stiles was worried that his occupation might be a deal breaker for her but thankfully she just seemed curious and not defensive. But how could he forget to mention it in the first place?! Things had just gone so well that he didn't think he needed to pass any sort of test with her.

She shook her head, "No, there wasn't a lot of time for questions, I was in a rush. Does that mean you're all done with school and stuff?"

"Mhmm, got my degree and finished my training- I'm a fully fledged adult! Well, I'm trying to be. I know you mentioned a steady income so I just assumed you were working, are you taking classes somewhere on top of that?"

"Yea, just 2 course at the community college. Money is kinda important so I can only go to school part time right now, and I'm not 100% sure what I want to do so I'm only taking the gen ed courses which are kinda boring. I'll figure it out eventually though. What about Scott?"

Stiles smiled widely as he let them into the apartment, "He just finished his last course a few months ago. I mean, he's still working at the same place but now he can officially be Deaton's vet assistant instead of just a technician that fills prescriptions and trims nails. He's been working for Deaton since high school; he knew what he wanted to do but didn't have the money to go to college full time so it's taken him longer to get his degree. And that's with a few scholarships. But he did it!"

"You sound proud of him," Allison noted quietly, smiling a bit herself. They hadn't been lying when they said they were like brothers- Stiles wasn't putting on a show, he really felt so proud for his friend.

"Oh yea, very proud. Scott went through a rough period; life took a complicated turn in high school and his grades tanked… he almost had to be held back. It wasn't that he wasn't trying, there was just a lot of stress. By graduation his grades were a lot better but other students had more extra-curricular stuff so the colleges didn't want to give him any big scholarships. He felt like maybe he wasn't meant to become a vet after all. It took a lot of encouraging, a few semesters at the community college, lots of letters from his professors, but he eventually got his scholarship for the veterinarian program and completed it. I wasn't about to let him walk away from it just because of a few bumps in the road."

As Stiles spoke, she wondered if she'd really fit in when the two of them were already so close… surely she was going to be the odd one out most of the time. At least it wouldn't be weird for her, to be the outsider, that was how it was for most of her high school career. They'd moved so much back then that she didn't have time to make any friends. Really, Allison only had one really close friend at the moment… and no matter how close they were, she was keeping secrets from Lydia and felt awful about it. She got so caught up in the sudden memories that she had almost missed what Stiles had said. "You said that you've known Scott for a long time now, he's like a brother? It's good that he has friends that believe in him!"

Stiles dropped his bag off by the couch and looked around, "Well normally I do but I can't understand why he didn't let you in!" His voice raised in volume as he finished his sentence. He'd seen the motorcycle in the parking lot, Scott was home.

"I'm in the shower!" Scott called out, "Sorry!"

"What… the shower, this late in the afternoon?" Stiles mumbled to himself. Whatever, maybe he woke up late or lost track of time… he did that a lot on his days off. "Well, I hope you weren't waiting too long out there and after today, you should have your own key and everything so it'll be fine."

She shrugged, "Maybe 5 or 6 minutes, not very long… does Scott take long showers or something?"

"Not in the mornings when he's getting ready for work but there are times when he's taking a leisurely shower that he can be in there for a long time. And of course he takes a shower the one day I'm running late and you're coming over."

"I didn't realize I was in the shower that long, my bad," Scott said as he popped his head into the hallway. "I thought I had time to hop in and out and… well… I stayed longer than I thought. The water felt really good, sue me."

"Well hurry up and get dressed so we can go over everything with her before the gang gets here."

Allison walked into the kitchen, checking out the cabinet space that she'd be using; it was kinda small but there wasn't a lot of cabinet space to start with and they were trying to split it between three people. At least she didn't have complete dinner sets to be bringing with her, she only needed enough dishes to last her a couple of days between washing. "What do you guys do for food storage? Or are all of your leftovers just wrapped in plastic wrap and stuffed in the fridge?"

"We share the food containers we have since we've kinda got a mish-mash of sizes and shapes… Somehow Isaac remembered which ones he's bought over the years… or he just grabbed the ones that he liked best, I'm really not sure. But yea, we share those and if you want to call dibs on something, like you know you're going to eat it and it's not up for grabs, just put your name on it. We also try to date everything that we put in there, to make cleaning out the old food easier… but different foods last longer so it's all up in the air. We try but of course there are times when we're in a hurry so we forget to write down the day we made it, or we don't care who eats it so we don't think to put a note on it."

"Okay, because I have a lot of these same containers so I wasn't sure if that would be an issue or not. I'm not going to be in charge of dishes just because I'm a girl right?" Allison asked, raising a brow. She was only slightly joking, not sure how they might actually feel about it.

"No, we've got a whole system set up for that, I can explain that in just a second, once Scott finishes getting dressed. I was going to ask what kind of stuff you were thinking about bringing? If you had friends to help you move in? I'm not off again until Saturday so I wouldn't be available to help, or you could wait until the afternoon once I get home too. I know you said that you're glad you didn't get the small room but there's still only so much that will fit in them. The closets aren't that big so you barely fit a normal sized dresser in them… and if you have a desk _and_ a big dresser, that doesn't leave a lot of floor space because of the bed. Scott has his bed on top of the dresser but that means he has to climb into bed every night and I wasn't about to try to do that."

"Well, I don't have a lot of stuff with me right now… When I got kicked out of my last apartment, my dad put my bigger items into his storage unit and I moved in with the Martins. Now that they ended up selling their house, it was time for me to move out, I mean that was always my plan anyways, to find another apartment," Allison explained. "But my dad is out of town and I don't have a key to the storage place so I won't have my desk or my dresser for awhile… I also have a mini fridge and a microwave but I don't know if I'll need those here or not. I will need my vanity table though, which takes up room… but that's because I don't want to take up all the bathroom space. I might have to do the same thing as Scott and put my bed up in the air… my dresser might be too big… but I won't have that for a week or so, so I've got time to figure out how I want to organize my room."

Stiles frowned, "Don't tell me all your clothes are in storage too? Or are you living out of garbage bags?"

"No," she laughed, "those I put at my dad's apartment. He's got a single bedroom apartment so I couldn't stay with him unless I was on the couch. He had room in the closet for my clothes though, and I have a key for his place. For now I think I can get by with having clothes in my suitcase so they don't get too wrinkled. Thanks, by the way, for the offer to help me move in. Right now it would only be my dad and I, not that I have anything too heavy to move, they aren't antique pieces."

"Yea, of course, Scott and I are both only children with single parents so we know how hard moving can be, although, we always helped each other out too so I guess we weren't really alone. Just let us know and I'm sure we can figure something out. I mean, at least the elevators work in this place, it would suck to have to take them up 3 flights of stairs."

"Hey, what do you know, we're all more alike than we thought. Who knows what else we might find in common with each other?" Allison mused. She scrambled to come up with a different topic, not wanting to think about the fact that she only had her father left… Stiles definitely seemed like the kind of person that could ask an insensitive question without meaning to. If he brought up the subject of why her mom wasn't in the picture anymore, she'd break down. "What about the real test of friendship, pineapples on pizza, yes or no?"

"I love pineapples, I don't care what it's on or in," Scott called out as he walked into the kitchen.

Stiles held a hand out and wiggled it in front of him, "It's not the worst thing to have on pizza but I think that's just because I've been around Scotty for so long. You eat something enough and it stops being gross. It isn't my topping of choice though, I'll admit that."

"I'm the same way, it's kinda like whatever. I find it weird that people are either so against it or for it, I rarely meet anyone that has a casual opinion about it. I've eaten it, it wasn't awful, wasn't my favorite, and that's about it. And at least Scott admits he just loves pineapples in general. So we shouldn't have any issues when it comes to ordering pizza, right?"

"Naw, as much as I love pineapples, I'm not a pushy kind of person- Isaac wouldn't say that he hated it but we knew he never liked it on his pizza. So whenever we were eating together, I wouldn't get it just because I didn't want him to feel forced to eat it," Scott told her. "How far as Stiles gotten with the schedules and stuff?"

"We were waiting on you, so not very far at all," Stiles told him. Then he turned back to Allison, "Don't be alarmed but we have all sorts of notes and boards and schedules in this apartment. But it's not like a strict regimen because we're control freaks, it's in place to make sure we don't fall into chaos. I have ADHD and Scott can just be scatterbrained, especially if he's got a lot on his plate. We found out fast that if the two of us are living together, we needed some sort of plan. Isaac just kept to himself, he felt weird about reminding us to do things so he just waded through the chaos as best he could. So, the schedules and all that aren't set in stone, you won't get yelled at if you change something, nothing like that," he assured her.

She nodded her head, looking around, "I do see a lot of notes, they're on the fridge, I see a big white board on the wall there and I think I saw one by the bathroom yesterday?" Truthfully she had been a little curious- neither of them had seemed like the super organized type! It was a relief that they weren't going to be super strict about rules and stuff. Allison liked to relax when she was at home and if she had to worry about remembering hundreds of rules, it would just be stressful.

"Yea, that big one over there is the chore chart, we can start there if you want?" Stiles asked. When she nodded her head, they all stepped into the living room and he took the board off the wall and set it on the coffee table. At least that way, she could sit on the couch while he explained everything. "So, it's kind of a complicated system to explain but once you get the hang of it, it really works! There are individual chores and communal chores-"

"Oh, now that Isaac is gone we'll have to re-divide those since it really isn't fair for her to just inherit his share," Scott interrupted.

"Very true, we don't want to forget to do that," he agreed. "We can do that after I finish explaining, so she at least has some understanding of our system. We each have a section of the board with different colored sticky notes, I'm blue, Scott is yellow, and Isaac was green but we also have the pink sticky notes left in the pack if you really don't like green. I am not giving up blue, sorry. Anyways, my chores are up in this section, these are Scott's, and down here will be your section."

Allison looked at the board, easily following along for the moment. Stiles's section had vacuuming, kitchen cleaning, and trash duty while Scott's had dusting, mopping the kitchen, and mail duty. For now, bathroom cleaning, fridge cleaning, and living room cleaning were in her section. It seemed like Isaac didn't trust them to stay on top of the 'important' cleanings. Or he got the bad jobs because he got the short straw, depending on who disliked doing what.

"The complicated part comes from my system for the individual chores, Isaac hated it at first, said it was annoying but let me tell you, once he actually got the hang of it he exploited the system! So, individual chores are laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and meals- kinda, I'll get back to that last one. We all take care of our own messes because that's just the best way to avoid fights. We have color-coded dishes and we each have a cabinet for our things, so basically, Scott doesn't have to do my dishes since he knows mine are the blue plastic ones. But if for some reason, Scott does do my dishes for me, he writes it down! So, as you see on the board, Scott has 2 yellow notes that say 'Stiles, dishes' because he's done my dishes for me twice now. At any point in the future, he can use those as a favor. He gives me one of the chores I owe him and tells me to do his dishes for him that day and we get rid of the note."

"If you have a note that says Scott owes you for dishes, can you cancel out his favor?" Allison asked as she quickly looked over all the notes on the board. It wasn't complicated at all, at least not to her. It was basically a big trade/counter system; if you didn't stay on top of your own chores and others had to do them for you, you'd get bogged down with additional chores later on.

"Yes!" Stiles said, glad she was following along.

Scott smirked, "Yea, Stiles really pushed for us to accept that rule when he first made the chore chart because he doesn't like owing favors. But it backfired on him because Isaac did a lot of the chores before we ever had a chance to… and he never forgot to do his individual chores so we had nothing to counter with… like ever."

"Like I said, he exploited the system! It's supposed to be casual, as a way to keep us all accountable, not for one roomie to hog the chores and then call in favor after favor so he doesn't have to do _anything_ for a whole month!" Stiles ranted.

"He still had his communal chores, don't make him sound like a bad person Stiles," Scott frowned. Personally, he'd thought it was funny how quickly Isaac had taken over the chores. It sucked when he made them do all of his chores of course but Isaac made sure not to do it on days when they were stressed out or just too busy. Although… that was probably what made Stiles so mad- he had to do chores on days he had planned to sleep in.

"I like this- it's a great idea! And it's organized so no one can really argue about if the favor has been repaid or if so-and-so hasn't kept up with their personal chores. But how does Scott owe you for groceries… he doesn't just give you the money he owes you for his items?"

Stiles blinked, not expecting the praise- she liked the system! It had taken Stiles forever to get on top of his own bad habits, but once he realized that if he kept a chart for himself, it helped remind him to get things done. Most of his life was still very unorganized but he wasn't a pain to live with because he shrugged off his responsibilities! "Um, that one is the actual trip to the store. We all just leave our lists on the fridge, with our names at the top, writing down what we need as we get low. If I know that Scott's going to be busy and I have extra money to spend, I'll just grab his list when I go to the store for myself. I tape his receipt to the fridge and he pays me back but he also owes me a trip to the store. So if one week I know I'll be too busy to go, I can ask him to go for me and buy my stuff."

"Oh, I get it; I was about to say, if it was just the money for groceries that he owed you, you'd have a hard time making sure everyone was being fair with the cost of the groceries."

Scott nodded in agreement, "Yea, we like to stay on top of the money stuff. So when it comes to cleaning supplies, we all set aside a day to go, we buy only what we need for cleaning and just evenly split the cost. It doesn't make sense that we each have to buy our own handsoaps for the kitchen or that whoever cleans the bathroom has to spend more money on toilet cleaner when the person who mops only has to spend money every once in awhile for floor cleaner. And we have the bagless vacuum cleaner so Stiles wouldn't ever spend money on bags for his communal chore."

"One last thing, meals are classified as individual chores because it doesn't work to assign one roomie with dinner all the time, y'know?" Stiles said, "But we do try to split up the cooking evenly, which is another dry-erase board that's on the fridge. We love dry-erase boards if you couldn't tell. We're on our own for breakfast and lunch since we usually aren't together for those most days but we're each assigned dinner two nights a week and the 7th day we're all on our own. What you do for dinner on your night is up to you, Scott and I don't have allergies, we aren't on diets. I'm slightly picky but I have no issue with just heating up some leftovers if I don't like what's been made for dinner; there's no reason to argue that you didn't take your turn at cooking just because I didn't like it. If you decide to do take-out, the cost is on you, it's just easier that way. Don't feel pressured to buy take-out if you don't have the money just because maybe you think you owe me money for when I buy take-out. Same concept with 'oh, when I buy take-out, it's from a fancy Italian place and when you buy take-out it's off the dollar menu' like, it's just what you can afford and what you might want to eat that night. There's no complaining and no comparing."

"Yea, on days that you might decide to do take-out, just text us to let us know where you're going and we'll reply with what we like from that place so you don't waste money by buying the wrong thing," Scott finished.

"I can see how Isaac might've thought it was all annoying when you first proposed the idea, it is kind of a lot to take in but I think I've got it," Allison answered. "I don't mind cooking and I eat all kinds of food so I think I'll be open to whatever you might do on your nights. I'm definitely glad that I found you guys! I work so much better with organization and honestly, if you guys didn't have a system in place, I would've been coming up with a polite way of suggesting that we figure one out!"

The three of them laughed and they quickly went about re-sorting the chore list because Allison admitted that she wasn't good at deciding when to throw food out so she didn't want to be responsible for the fridge. She traded with Scott, taking dusting instead since he admitted that he hated it but that was the only thing they changed. Allison did say that she would clean the bathroom unless they proved to be beyond messy. Her bathroom at home very rarely got dirty, even though she used makeup every day, so if they left the bathroom nasty, she was going to demand a trade.

"Oh, speaking of bathrooms, we're also going to have to adjust that schedule too," Scott reminded them.

"Please tell me you just mean the showering and stuff, because I can't promise when I might have to pee," Allison joked.

Stiles smiled, "I like her sense of humor already! Yea, it's just the morning schedule. We didn't want to fight over who got to shower first or have someone hogging the hot water. That's what you saw by the bathroom door yesterday. We'll just have to know your work and school schedule so we can adjust who showers first and whatnot."

"I'll make it easy, I prefer to shower before I go to bed. I love sleeping in too much and if I shower in the morning, that means I have to dry my hair and make sure it doesn't frizz and whatnot. I try to take as little time as possible in the morning since makeup already takes up a chunk of it."

"Thank goodness, Isaac took forever in the mornings for some reason- as far as I know he didn't wear makeup. That will make things easier, but we'll still write everything down just so we can get used to the new routine and make sure the timing doesn't clash." Stiles went to grab the board, wanting to get all the 'planning' stuff out of the way. "I work mornings, I'm a deputy at the department and my shift _starts_ at 6 in the morning. I've never had to worry about competing for shower time. Scott and Isaac left at similar times though so we had to juggle their schedules."

Allison looked over the weekly schedule they had set up, "I have classes three times a week and I usually get ready at around 8 but I can do my makeup in my room. The bathroom is small and I don't want to add too much clutter. I'd just need a moment for brushing my teeth and whatnot before I head out the door. Aside from that, I work part time as a cashier so my hours are a little irregular. I get the week's schedule a few days in advance but I'm almost always mid-day shifts and occasionally night shifts… never morning. I think I'll get called in after Scott goes to work so hopefully it won't be an issue?"

"Great! I mean, we can make just about anything work. If need be, I have no issue waking up a little earlier and showering, just to make sure the bathroom is clear for you. Sometimes I might take a shower when I get home because I work at a vet clinic so there are days when I just stink but that's almost always before dinner so it shouldn't interfere with your evening showers anyways."

Stiles smiled to himself, surprised at how well everything was going. Allison meshed so perfectly with their schedules and seemed like a genuinely nice person. She put up with their antics and didn't seem put off by his over-the-top personality! It was a good thing that Stiles hadn't specified that they needed a male roommate since he sincerely doubted that they would've found anyone to fill in like Allison. It was better than he could've hoped for!

"Okay, so aside from all the scheduling, is there anything else I should know?"

They looked at each other, trying to think of anything they might have missed. Stiles thought of one first, "Um, company! You're obviously free to bring whoever you want over because it's your home now too. We haven't had issues yet of disagreements but that's because Isaac's friends were also our friends. Do you have any friends that would dislike the fact I'm in law enforcement?"

"No… I only have a few and as far as I know, they don't break the law," Allison lied smoothly. Most of the weapons she owned, she wasn't allowed to have, and hunting down murderers, even though they were Weres, wasn't a right given to the average citizen. But they weren't ever going to find out about that, she was going to keep her secret life out of the apartment, period. She did feel bad about lying but she'd told the lie so many times now, it was second nature… Stiles didn't even look suspicious and he was trained to spot lies!

"Yea, since you don't seem to be the law-breaking type and you don't have issues with him being a deputy, it makes sense that your friends also shouldn't mind." Scott turned and pointed to the entertainment center, "The gaming systems are ours but we keep them out here to share so you're free to play games if you want, or even add to the collection. Umm… I can't really think of any other rules, we're pretty laid back. I mean, as long as you do your chores and stuff, that's all that really matters. I guess if you have any issues, please speak up- we're approachable, I promise. We want this to work out as much as you do so if any annoying habits come up, just let us know and we can sit down and discuss the problem."

"The same goes for me, I'm sure I probably have some habits that could be considered annoying so it's only fair that you bring it to my attention. I can't promise to just fix the issue, depending on what it is, but I can at least be more mindful of it. Resentment can poison a relationship quickly and we don't want that!"

Since neither one of the guys could think of any other solid rules for the apartment, Scott asked Allison if she wanted to play video games while they waited for everyone else to show up. And she didn't shy away from the offer, eagerly going over to their pile of games to see what they had. All three of them were standing up in front of the couch yelling at the television when Isaac came over two hours later.

"C'mon Mario, don't let me down!" Scott shouted as he mashed his controller as fast as he could.

"NO! I was way faster than you, that's not fair!" Stiles called out at the same time as his character was pushed over the edge of the platform.

Allison was louder than both of them, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, you aren't stronger than me Mr. CPU version of Walugi! YES!" she exclaimed as she finally won. Then she collapsed onto the couch with a groan, "My thumbs hurt so bad… are we almost done?" She'd forgotten just how long a game like Mario Party can take.

"I mean, if you want to give me a star, we can be done," Stiles teased.

"Oh no, I worked hard for my stars, thank you very much!"

Isaac tilted his head for a minute and watched them play another minigame before he cleared his throat, "Good thing I'm not a thief I suppose. You guys didn't even know I was in here."

All three of them jumped, Stiles turning and automatically throwing the controller in his hand, which ended up flying back at him because of the safety strap around his wrist. "Dude, Isaac, when the heck did you get here?!" he shouted.

"Like seven minutes ago, I called out a hello but you guys were yelling so much you didn't hear me. So I stood here and waited for a quieter moment to say hello. Thank god you remembered the safety strap or you'd be buying another controller," Isaac smirked.

"Are you saying you wouldn't have been able to catch it?" he countered before turning to pause the game.

Isaac laughed and shook his head, "I'm saying you would've missed. Anyways, I can't stay long since I'm still trying to organize the new place but, I'm here. I'm Isaac, the one moving out if you didn't guess."

Allison leaned over the back of the couch to shake his hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Allison. Before long you're going to have to give up that key mister! Then you won't be able to sneak in anymore."

"I don't know, you haven't met the rest of the… gang yet," he murmured, barely catching himself before calling them a Pack. It had been awhile since he'd really talked with a stranger with the intent of becoming their friend.

"Oh I'm sure they aren't that bad, beside, the reason I'm meeting them is so I can be reassured about these two, not scared away."

Stiles and Scott looked at each other, "Well, that's the plan… we'll see how well that goes."

"I already know the girls are going to try and butter you up so I'll say right now, Scott snores, be glad that his room is the furthest from yours," Isaac said, trying to keep a straight face.

"Dude, you're supposed to be on our side! Do you want us to go broke trying to afford this place without a third person?" Stiles whined.

Scott rolled his eyes as Isaac continued to try and 'bad mouth' them, saying that he wasn't going to lie to a girl just so they can impress her. He knew that before he left, he'd pull her aside and tell her that he was just joking. Stiles had to know he'd do that too but he was probably still nervous about Allison getting the right impression and there was always the chance that she'd take Isaac way too seriously. She was pretty chill though, Scott could tell that she knew he was just being a jerk to upset Stiles. Isaac tried to be stoic like Derek but he got a mischievous glint in his eye whenever he was being facetious. The fact that he was evening joking around with her surprised him; he was usually so serious around strangers. But he had stood there and watched them yell at each other for a few minutes… was that really enough? Thankfully before Stiles could get too riled up, the buzzer went off and Scott pushed him to go answer it.

"Who is it?"

"Malia, and I've got the food so let me in."

Stiles pressed the button to unlock the door and told her that their apartment door was unlocked for her. Then he hurried into the kitchen to grab a stack of paper plates to put on the counter beside the paper towels.

Isaac took a moment to study the woman as she talked to Scott about whether to turn the game off or not. He could tell that she was feeling slightly nervous; aside from the surprise at his sudden appearance, she'd been pretty relaxed so far. But now it was crunch time, the food was arriving and that meant the others would be showing up before long and she'd be the center of attention. Only she had no idea of what she was really in store for… Generally speaking, they were all much more disciplined now when it came to hiding their Were-ness from strangers. At least they were on the street, or in public spaces. But the apartment was considered Pack property and Isaac knew that everyone would be hyper-critical- he'd been hyper-critical when he'd first come in… that was why he'd stayed quiet, so he could gauge her scent without needing to be overly sneaky about it. Weres didn't like to welcome strangers into their 'dens', if their Pack was anything to go by, so he hoped no one acted too aggressively towards her. Isaac still couldn't believe that this was even happening. Scott and Stiles were going to be living with a complete stranger? All of them had a habit of just calling out important information when it came to 'cases' they were dealing with, because their home was safe. It couldn't be considered safe after she moved in, they'd have to watch everything they said and did from now on. He remembered all the close calls he and Erica had, back in high school before they'd found Anchors; and he remembered how nice it was to for him and Scott to have a safe place to just shift at times. Would Scott remember to rein himself in? What if Allison came home early and surprised him? There were so many things that could go wrong but he could also understand why the boys were willing to take a chance with her. In those few moments he'd watched them, she fit right in, she didn't seem new at all. In the end, it would be up to Derek if he thought they should be taking the risk or not, so he'd be nice and leave the judging to the Alpha.

"Alright, where's the new roommate, let's get this out of the way so we can eat!" Cora called out as she opened the door for her cousin. "Name, major, occupation, weird habits, all that, let's go!"

Scott hung his head, they were already off to a great start. He couldn't help but be disappointed that Kira hadn't shown up with them- she would've been more inviting about it. But thankfully Allison took it in stride, hurrying to the front door to help with the bags of food.

"Right, that's what this get-together is about after all," she agreed. "I'm Allison, and one of you is Malia?" She'd only heard one of them over the intercom and hadn't been expecting to see two women in the hallway.

"That'd be me, nice to meet you, hope you like Chinese food because we brought a lot of that and not much else," she stated as she came into the apartment. "This is my cousin Cora, she's like Stiles and can be rude so-"

" _I_ can be rude?" Cora interrupted, raising her brows. "Who was the one that was a forest child for like 8 years and forgot all of her manners?! I was just getting to the point, aren't you curious about who's going to be moving in with those two?"

"Hey, at least I have an excuse, you don't," Malia said with a grin. "And I thought I was the one that was too blunt?" The two of them continued to bicker back and forth as they carried the food into the kitchen and started unbagging it all. Of course she was curious but Derek had warned them very sternly to not Wolf-out on the poor girl because he knew just how protective they felt around the Human member of their Pack. How was it that she was handling it better than Cora?

"Forest child?" Allison mumbled quietly, looking around in confusion. She still had 2 bags of food in her hand but hadn't made a move to the kitchen after that weird statement. Were they just being weird to make her nervous? She knew Isaac had been joking around earlier, trying to talk her out of moving in but with those two… she wasn't as certain.

"You'll have to forgive them, they really don't understand the finer points of being cordial with strangers. They don't even know how to be cordial with their own family… like the brother that always foots the food bill for these kinds of occasions," a tall dark-haired man said, coming into the apartment behind her.

"It's not our fault you didn't get to the door fast enough Derek, our hands were full of food," one of the girls shouted from the kitchen while the other snorted with laughter. For some reason they thought it was hilarious that the Alpha got stuck outside and had to wait for someone to open the door for him.

Allison turned as she cleared her throat, ready to introduce herself. She lost her nerve the moment she saw the deep scowl on his face. "I-I'm uh… Allison… Ar-Argent, um, sir…" she stammered out, suddenly feeling like she was facing some pissed off authority figure.

Derek reached out to shake her hand, ignoring the pang of fear in his chest when he was given flashbacks of a young Kate. Even if she hadn't given her last name, he couldn't have missed the family resemblance. If she was anything like her aunt, he would've been worried that she 'just happened' to be moving in with his Beta. But it wasn't a _complete_ surprise to him, he'd heard that Chris and his daughter had moved back to California a few years ago; they were bound to run into each other at some point. It did seem like he and Chris had tried harder than necessary to avoid each other though, neither one had reached out to the other, despite Beacon Hills being Hale territory. But Chris had no real reason to interact with his Pack, not anymore; and because of that, it seemed like Allison knew nothing about them. "Argent huh?" he asked, pausing a moment and watching the apprehension grow on her face. So she did realize that her last name was famous, or at least infamous within some circles. Her heartbeat remained steady though, it was only her face she had trouble controlling; it was usually the opposite for young Hunters. "That's French right?"

"Oh, um yea, I think it means silver or something like that? You can bet that as soon as I realized our family was from France a few years ago, I had to go and visit!" she gushed, hoping the relief didn't show on her face too much. That pause had felt like an eternity and the way he'd been studying her face… she'd been scared that he knew her family. It was no secret that she and her dad had made a few enemies over the years… ever since they'd officially stepped away from her grandfather. Hunters didn't like to be told they were wrong when it came to hunting Weres. It would be dangerous to run into a hostile Hunter while caught off guard and completely vulnerable. But he'd only recognized the origin of her name, no big deal.

"I'm Derek, Cora's older brother, it's nice to meet you. The others should be here soon and I promise you won't feel like such a fish-out-of-water for long." He closed the door behind him and nodded towards the kitchen so she could set the food down.

"Oh, there's more coming?" Allison asked, suddenly not sure if she was ready for anyone else. She was still wondering about the two women that had arrived with the food. It made sense that his friends would be a little protective but Allison wasn't all that confident in her skills at friendship building… she had to try and impress more than the 4 people that were already here?

"I told you Derek wasn't the best person for her to meet first," Stiles groaned as he looked over and saw the look on her face. He should've realized that he had driven Malia and Cora… he did always buy food for them in mass quantities. But he'd been so focused on the food that he hadn't heard him come in. Now Allison was stuck standing by him and she looked beyond intimidated. "I promise, he's really not that mean, it's like Scott said yesterday, that's just his face…"

"Huh? Oh, no, he's fine, I'm more confused about the 'forest child' thing…? And I'm also wondering how many more we can fit in the living room if more people are planning on coming." Although, she had been very intimidated when she first saw him… she didn't want to admit it, that didn't seem nice.

Stiles sighed and dropped his head back so he could stare helplessly at the ceiling. "I thought I mentioned that we wanted to keep things lowkey _Malia_!" Seriously, she was already bringing up her tragic history… Malia really needed to learn that it wasn't something that should be shared right away. She was just too candid sometimes, not realizing that the story was awkward for people to hear.

The accused girl narrowed her eyes and threw a plastic fork at him, "Cora was the one that said something! Don't blame me, I didn't bring it up!"

"Stiles, there's no point in keeping these things from her… besides, I didn't realize she wasn't from the area… it was really big news back then," Cora said, the closest thing he'd get to an apology from her. She wanted to know how the woman would react to Malia's past, it wasn't exactly a secret to the townspeople. If she looked at Malia weird then they wouldn't need her around… although she'd also heard Derek call her an Argent? Maybe Chris was finally checking up on them… Derek wasn't going to be a fan of that!

Scott held his hands out to quiet everyone before things got too loud, "How about we start with the food, sit down and just do a more complete round of introductions before we start in on all the stories? Besides, we're still waiting on Kira right?"

"Yea, she's coming after work so it'll be awhile still. That means we can't eat all the food, we have to save some for her."

There was a low hum of chatter as everyone grabbed plates and got food, the whole group moving into the living room. Scott had taken a moment to move the table and pull out the extra chairs from the hall closet… a few of them would have to sit on the floor though. Derek immediately piled into one of the chairs, not wanting to get squished on the couch as everyone tried to sit there. Malia just dropped onto the floor by the table and started eating while the others slowly found a place. They spent a few minutes introducing themselves, talking about how they all met each other in high school (which was basically the whole truth anyways) and what they were doing currently. It turned out that Allison wasn't the only one still going to school, trying to figure out what they wanted to do- Isaac and Malia had no idea either. She was actually surprised she hadn't recognized them from campus but there were a lot of people that went to the community college.

"Okay so, to explain my random comment from earlier, now that I know you don't know…" Cora started after finishing most of her plate. "Malia was literally lost as a child. There was a car accident and everyone just assumed that she'd been eaten by a wild animal-"

"No joke, she's being 100% serious," Derek confirmed when Allison started to frown in disbelief. It was weird that Chris hadn't told her anything about them, but he could tell that she wasn't faking her reaction. Cora was skeptical of her ignorance, he could tell but thankfully she hadn't tried to call her out on it. If she was in the dark about Malia, then it wasn't hard to imagine that she just thought they were trying to pull her leg. He wanted her to know they were telling her the truth and since he was older than the rest of them, he figured she might believe him if vouched for the story.

"Her mom and sister were dead and there were animal tracks around the car, it made sense," Cora continued. "The family looked for her of course, just in case, but we never found her so Uncle Peter assumed the worst… he took it really badly too. And 8 years later she just… reappeared. She'd somehow survived and had been living in the woods the whole time- a legit forest child. It took forever to rehabilitate her, we're still working on it actually. Just look at her…"

Allison automatically turned to look at Malia, almost choking on her food when she saw the way Malia was attacking her plate. "Some habits are probably hard to break," she chortled, laughing around the food in her mouth.

Malia shrugged, remembering not to talk with food in her mouth at the very least. Most things had come back to her fairly quickly but not everything. Food still brought out her wild side, after having to compete for her food for so long, it was hard to not wolf it all down right away. And politeness still wasn't her strong suit, she just didn't see any reason to not get right to the point when talking to someone. The Pack accepted her though and she couldn't be happier to have her family back. "Like I said, at least I have a reason to be tactless, what's your excuse Cora?"

"Someone has to counter Kira's bright and bubbly personality."

"Speaking of manners and being messy," Isaac said as he got up to throw his plate away, "don't let the complicated chore chart mislead you. Stiles and Scott often slack off on their chores- don't let them get away with it."

"That's not what I heard," she countered, playfully narrowing her eyes at him. "I heard you just rushed through their stuff to take advantage of the trade system. Didn't even give them a chance to do their chores."

Isaac laughed, giving her a cheeky grin, "Okay, so _sometimes_ I did that, but not all the time." He shouldn't have been surprised that Stiles had already gone over the whole system with her and told her about how well he'd utilized the favors. When he looked over, he saw her name in his old corner of the board… she really was planning on moving in. And he was really moving out… "I'm going to go put the last of my boxes in the car; can someone help with a box or two? I've got to leave but I'll say bye after everything's in the car."

Cora nodded and got up to help him, since most of the others were still working on seconds. Now that the most shocking story had been told, Stiles was more than happy to share a few others, carefully sticking to the normal stories. The mood was relaxed and there were a few close calls as they were talking, most of them forgetting that she didn't know the truth about their little gang. But no one flubbed up too badly, Allison didn't seem to notice anything off when they'd hurry to cover their tracks. And as Scott expected, before Isaac left, as he was saying goodbye, he told Allison that he'd only been joking earlier. Which of course she had guessed as much, it had been obvious that he wasn't moving out on bad terms.

After Isaac left, things were calm and quiet for about ten minutes before there was another knock on the door. "I hope you brought some extra food, Erica and Boyd are with me!" Kira called out as she let herself in.

"Oh yea, there's still plenty in the kitchen, help yourself," Scott answered.

Stiles got up to go hug Erica, excited at her arrival. "Catwoman? I thought you and Boyd were too busy to come! Dude, awesome!"

"Hey Batman, our teacher cancelled the test tomorrow so we didn't have to cram and we definitely didn't want to miss out on a P-um big group hangout!" she replied, hugging him tightly in return. As she followed her friend into the kitchen, she turned and whispered, "She hasn't been scared away yet?"

"Please say she's toughing it out, I bet her 20 bucks that she'd still be here," Boyd snickered.

"Yea, she's taking it all surprisingly well. Malia and Cora almost ruined it the first like 4 seconds they were here but, Scott managed to calm everyone down and it's been cool." Stiles turned to look back into the living room, "I have no idea what Derek thinks though… Isaac was cracking jokes with her which was surprising- he's going to be sad that he missed you by the way."

"Yea, we tried to text him to let him know we were coming but he sent back a pouty face and said that he'd already left. Let's go meet her shall we?" Boyd prompted, plate already filled with food.

Stiles led them back into the living room, "Okay, it turns out you get to meet the whole gang- except Peter I guess…"

"My dad doesn't really count," Malia shrugged. Everyone knew that Peter was kind of on the outskirts of the Pack. He wasn't as bad as before but things were still strained between them all. His biggest redeeming quality was that he had been the one to finally find her so Derek could help her shift back to Human. The fact that he was so much older than the rest of them pretty much set him apart. Scott and Stiles both tried to avoid him as much as possible because of their history too.

"True, I suppose. Anyways, this is the Catwoman to my Batman, Erica, the one I can talk comics with. He's Vernon but everyone just calls him Boyd because he was in ROTC in high school and it feels weird to call him Vernon now. And the friendly one over there is Kira."

Allison waved to them all, "I'm Allison, the new roommate. It's so crazy to know you have this many close friends- I am so jealous!" The whole group seemed like a lot of fun, once she got past the shock of it.

"I'm sure you'll become a part of the group soon enough, it's really easy," Kira assured her. "When I met them, they all felt really close knit but they welcomed me easily enough. Scott and I shared AP Bio our junior year so we so started out as classmates but I started hanging around the group and we all just clicked! If Cora's attitude hasn't scared you off yet then I'll think we'll all get along fine. And since I'm late, I missed what it is you do, are you a student?"

"Kinda, I'm slowly working towards a degree in something… and I'm a cashier part time so I'm making money. I still have to decide what I want to do, or at least a direction to go in but I've got time."

Kira nodded in understanding, "Yea, that can be hard. I had no idea what I wanted to do for awhile and my mom pushed for me to become her assistant at the museum. She's a curator there, big history buff like my dad. At first I thought it was just because she wanted me to get experience, I mean, since she's one of the higher ups, it wasn't hard to get me a position… and I thought it was going to be so boring… but it wasn't, at all. I love it! I guess my mom figured I'd have a passion for history too, which is weird because I didn't really care for it in high school. But working in a museum is different for me, it's so different from reading a book while sitting in a class. I'm glad she pushed me into it, and I know if I did hate it, I could've left. I just never would've thought of it on my own."

Allison smiled, asking her about what her job entailed. She couldn't help but think of her dad… He'd offered to let her work for him, a federally licensed firearms dealer. It would be the perfect cover, they'd be free to move around without her having to give notice to employers or making up excuses if she got hurt. But it was too much for Allison, she wasn't ready to fully embrace that life- she needed some part of their life to be normal still. She'd seen what it had done to the rest of her family and she didn't want to lose her father too because they got too consumed again. Maybe later in life she could pick up her dad's semi-legitimate business, but not right now. But since Kira brought up the subject of school again, it prompted Erica to start sharing stories about some of the stuff she'd seen while they were up at Sac state.

That was the point where Derek excused himself, "I'm older than the rest of you, I don't have any fun college stories to share, thank you very much. Have fun, it was nice to meet you, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you around." He turned and nodded to Scott and Stiles, letting them know that he approved of her. He knew Chris, had heard about what had happened to Victoria… how it changed him and his daughter, pushed them away from Gerard for good (and Kate too). At first he hadn't wanted to believe that any Hunter, let alone an Argent, could be sympathetic to his kind, but the stories continued to circulate and Weres were willing to defend Chris's actions. The two of them had proven to be friends to innocent Weres and their new Code was spread around. So Derek knew that Allison wasn't a threat to Scott, or any of them, because none of them were murderers. It was still strange though, knowing that two of his Betas were going to be living with a Hunter… but if it had to be a Hunter, he was glad it was her. Not that they even knew who Allison was- he'd never told them about the Argents and she smelled clean, like a normal Human. Derek smirked to himself as he walked into the hallway, thinking about how everyone would react when they finally found out. Because there was no way the three of them could live together and keep a secret for long, someone was going to mess up eventually. The three of them could probably use the wake-up call as experience on judging strangers in the future. It should be at least a little entertaining to watch them freak out for a bit, to make up with all the stress they put him through over the years! It wasn't like they were in any real danger after all.


	3. Trouble in Paradise

A/N: I know I never set a schedule for this fic but I was hoping to update once a week but UGH, life just gets in the way sometimes... I just didn't have as much time as I wanted to sit and write. I'm hoping the next few chapters can be written soon so you don't have to wait and see how everything goes. I know it kinda ends on a cliffhanger but I was really eager to post something for you guys and the next section is going to be long by itself I'm sure XD  
I also kinda rushed through the last section so I apologize for any errors and I hope to read back through it and edit it if it needs it (I doubt it will be anything major, just spelling checks and stuff), I hope there's nothing too distracting!  
Hope you're all still enjoying the story :D

* * *

*Next Saturday*

The meeting had gone well and everyone accepted Allison; Erica and Kira had both made up for Cora's rough introduction. Erica had told her about how Stiles had stood up for her when she was younger and how the fact that he wasn't ever afraid to be himself really helped to inspire her. It actually almost embarrassed Stiles to hear her be so complimentary. But she'd countered with plenty of embarrassing stories of them as well, just so Allison knew she wasn't being too biased. By the end of the night, Kira and Erica and been convinced that she was going to be the best roommate ever. And they had agreed,  
Scott and Stiles had taken her to the landlord and signed her name onto the lease the next day. Now she had a building key and was mostly moved in (aside from the stuff in storage) and things were going great. It had only been about a week but Stiles was floating on cloud nine! "Dude, for reals, I'll say it again, she is the perfect roommate! There's none of the awkwardness of having a stranger in the house, y'know?"

"Yea, um, about that…" Scott was chewing on his lip and avoiding eye contact.

"What? Scott, don't ruin this… please tell me it's something minor, something we can work out…" Stiles pulled his best friend over to the couch and clasped his hands together. Had he cursed them by calling her the perfect roommate?

"Allison came home last night… smelling like blood and wolfsbane…" There was no way to beat around the bush, Scott knew it… so he just laid it all on the table, hoping his friend would know what to do.

Stiles gaped at him, "Excuse me? Last night? Why didn't you text me, I would've come home! That sounds serious- did she try to attack you?!"

"No, nothing like that. The smell of wolfsbane was faint, the blood was stronger. You were out with your dad… it didn't feel right interrupting since I wasn't in danger. I'm fairly certain I didn't shift, not even my eyes, it was really faint."

"She had traces of wolfsbane on her Scott, and you're a Werewolf! Weren't in danger? What are the odds that she just happened to grab one of the flowers because it was pretty? I can't believe you think you weren't in danger! If it had been stronger- if she had seen your eyes!"

Scott shook his head, "She wasn't aggressive at all, I swear, there was no reaction for her to see. I'll admit that it wasn't a flower, I know it wasn't. Remember when we found the one on Derek's property? I have a different reaction to the flowers than to the concentrated powder and stuff. It was powder that she had on her. Also, I don't think the blood was hers."

"How do you know that?"

"Well it was pretty strong so I think it's fair to say that there was a good amount of blood… you would've even been able to smell it. But she didn't look hurt at all, no wincing, no limping, she wasn't holding her stomach or cradling an arm, literally nothing. She seemed a bit nervous and it was obvious that she was trying to _not_ be obvious. I was on the couch, watching tv when she came in so she stood in the hallway to talk to me. She made the effort to talk to me but she didn't get too close to me and as soon as enough time had passed to be considered polite, she excused herself to go shower. But the weirder thing is that she got rid of her clothes before showering."

"Huh?"

He cleared his throat, not sure how Stiles was going to react. "She grabbed a trash bag from under the sink before going back to her room. There was some rustling noise and I'm assuming she stuffed her dirty clothes into the bag. After that, I heard the window in her room open and she called out to someone… When she came out to head into the shower, she was wearing different clothes. And the smell of blood was pretty much gone."

"That is strange. So it had to be on her clothes right? She probably didn't want to take the chance that you might snoop so she got rid of them ASAP." Stiles frowned, "Do you really think she tossed her clothes down to someone? That would be the best way to get rid of them I guess… Better than trying to sneak them past us and then down to the laundry room, anyone might have seen them that way."

Scott mumbled an agreement and ran his hand through his hair. "Maybe we have it all wrong…" he hedged, desperate to be wrong. "Maybe she had nothing to do with the actual _hunting_ part, like, what if she just stumbled upon the whole thing?"

Stiles shook his head, "Scotty… now you're just trying to be overly optimistic to counter your doubt. You really think she just… happened to come across an injured Were after the Hunters had attacked? They escaped, bleeding and scared, came across Allison and… she survived? Especially if we consider that Derek warned us about the Rogue that has been sulking around town. He told us he was working on hunting them down and figuring out how big of a threat they were and this morning we get a text saying that the issue has been resolved… So if the Rogue Derek was looking for was the same one that the Hunters caught up with, there is no way Allison wouldn't have become another victim… they wouldn't have had the control to not attack. So, ignoring that issue with your weak argument that she's an innocent bystander, do you think Allison would be okay after finding someone all bloody and shot up… she'd just come back to the apartment and play it cool?"

"I dunno… maybe."

"No, Scott, the answer you are looking for is no. That's a pretty intense encounter, for anyone. I find it hard to believe that she'd just come back here and then not say something to you." As much as he hated to be the one arguing against Allison, it needed to be done. They couldn't afford to be in denial about this, it was too risky. As nice as she seemed, it was safer to assume the worst and prepare than to stick their heads in the sand.

"Okay, you're right, when she came in, she didn't act like she'd just watched someone die, or worse, watch someone miraculously heal from fatal wounds, she was showing no signs," he admitted. "She wasn't really anxious at all, like I said earlier, it was mostly like she was hoping I wouldn't notice the blood. She was trying to be smooth and I could have bought it if I hadn't noticed the smell. Allison was completely cool about it, all things considered."

Stiles nodded, "And we can't forget about the fact that there was someone waiting for her to toss her clothes out. She knew ahead of time that she couldn't keep those in the apartment and asked a partner to throw them out, or wash them. Again, that isn't the actions of an innocent bystander that was surprised by a shot-up Were."

"Okay, okay, but like dude… what kind of Hunter moves in with two random guys?! Hunters don't just move in with strangers."

"I know! That's the part I can't get my head around… at all! Hunters are like Weres- it's usually too risky to just find random people to move in with. You have to keep secrets and you're away from your safety net if something goes wrong. Not to mention if you happen to get unlucky like us and find someone that is your sworn enemy… But… she didn't even do anything to test us right?! What kind of Hunter doesn't even test the people they are living with? I mean, as a Were, you at least have your sense of smell and stuff."

"Right, I don't recall her doing anything… I never caught the scent of wolfsbane or even mountain ash… she didn't do anything that might trigger a shift that day she came over. And there's none in the apartment now either, I haven't smelled it at all." There were more frowns as they tried to piece everything together. Everything seemed to point to Allison being a Hunter, if a possibly inept one… but there was still a chance that she wasn't and Scott didn't want to accuse her and kick her out if he was wrong about last night. It wasn't like they even found the bloody clothes to use as evidence.

"Well, there's one way to find out for sure," Stiles called out suddenly. He stood up and strode down the hall, shoulders set. They'd just have to search her room. She wasn't supposed to be back for a few hours still and he needed some answers, something to confront her with. He twisted the handle of her door and went in, automatically scanning for a ring of mountain ash that she might have put down.

"Stiles!" Scott whined, right behind him. "We aren't supposed to go into each other's rooms and…" Slowly he stepped into the room, nostrils flared. As much as he hated to invade her privacy, the fact that he could smell wolfsbane unnerved him.

"Is it strong, is there a hidden stash in here that we've just missed?"

The Were shook his head, it was actually pretty faint but since it was basically their kryptonite, as Stiles called it, he was very attuned to the smell. He slowly walked around the room, trying to pinpoint where the smell was coming from… It was a few minutes before he saw some trace amounts sitting on the window sill. He pointed it out and let Stiles pull him back.

"It's not a lot but we have no idea what strain it is or how strong it might be," Stiles commented. He grabbed a piece of paper and carefully swept the dust into a pile, looking at it closely. He pinched some between two fingers, sighing when he recognized the texture. "So, we've got traces of wolfsbane in her room, she came home smelling like blood… and we know for a fact that there was a Rogue wandering around town. It makes sense that a group of Hunters around town also caught wind of them and decided to take action. And Allison just happens to be a part of that group of Hunters."

"We should take that to Deaton… just to make sure."

Stiles looked up at his friend and saw the look of defeat on his face. This was about the worst thing that could have come up. And he just couldn't bring himself to disagree with Scott anymore, he didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. Both of them knew wolfsbane, they weren't wrong… "Yea, Deaton's the expert, he'll be able to tell us for sure what it is. We have to be 110% certain about this." He carefully folded the paper and put it in his pocket. "Alright, let's go, I have no idea when Allison might come back and we need answers before then."

*Clinic*

The two guys sat in the front room, waiting for Deaton to finish with his current patient. They were just thankful that he always found a way to squeeze them in during emergencies… they've had a lot of those over the years.

"Alright Scott, Stiles, come on back."

Stiles led the way, clearing his throat awkwardly as they gathered around the exam table in the back. "So, straight to the point… um… I found some powdered residue on my clothes and for Scott's safety, I was hoping you could categorize it for us. Between work and the Druid stuff, I'm not really sure." He pulled the paper out and set it on the table, letting the veterinarian unfold it.

Deaton carefully poured the dust onto the table, not wanting to disturb it and cause it to disperse in the air. Once it was on the table, he rubbed it between his fingers and instantly narrowed his eyes. "Stiles, how do you fail to identify a substance that you come into contact with multiple times a week? You've spent a lot of time here in this office learning about this very thing."

"I wasn't sure what um, what strain it was though… I'm not as good at that part." He still didn't name it, even though Deaton was waiting for him to.

"What makes you think this is any special strand? And Scott-" Deaton turned to his employee and cut himself off when he saw the stressed look on his face. Both of them knew exactly what they'd brought him, they just hadn't wanted to hear it. An interesting turn of events… "Where did you really get this?"

"At… the apartment, like I said," Stiles said very slowly while Scott stayed quiet.

"You didn't get this from my office because you wear scrubs when handling it here- because you were living with two Weres. Scott wouldn't just run into this and not know what it is; if you really got it from the apartment like you said, that would mean it came from your new roommate, correct? And since you're both looking so upset by the news, I doubt she just stumbled across some concentrated wolfsbane powder. Your roommate is a Hunter, isn't she?"

There was a long pause before Scott finally mumbled, "It seems like it, yea."

"We don't know for sure, technically, it wasn't like we saw her with any weapons, shooting a Were- and she didn't come after Scott, she didn't! But I mean, there was suspicious behavior last night and we can't ignore the signs. We were hoping to be wrong which was why we brought it to you, just on the very, teeny, tiny, small chance that we were wrong about what it was."

"And wh-"

"You can't tell Derek!" Scott blurted out, realizing their mistake in coming here. "I know he's the Alpha and you're our Emissary because somehow he talked you into coming out of retirement, so like… you're supposed to have an open line of communication but please, Deaton, you can't tell him!"

Deaton raised both eyebrows at that, "You're keeping secrets from your Alpha?"

"We're handling it on our own, we can handle this and there is no reason to worry him with something so trivial," Stiles declared, blurring all the words together in his haste.

"A Hunter living with his Betas is trivial?"

"Like I said, she didn't do anything to Scott, I don't think she even knows about us. She hasn't found out our secret so it's fine. Please, you believe in us don't you?"

"Yea, c'mon Deaton, we've proven ourselves to be capable after all these years, right?"

"What about if things go horribly awry?"

Stiles waved him off, "Pft, don't be so negative. We're adults and we know how to read a situation and we aren't insanely stubborn. If something happens that we can't handle, we aren't afraid to call Derek and admit we're in over our heads. This just isn't something that requires his attention, he's got more important stuff to deal with."

"I guess we'll see," was all Deaton commented. They left right after that, hurrying to get back home since he confirmed their fears, it was wolfsbane. He waited maybe 5 minutes before he called Derek, knowing that the Alpha was waiting for information. "You'll be happy to know that it wasn't your Betas that spoiled everything."

"It was because of the hunt last night wasn't it?" Derek asked. He was surprised they'd lasted a week but after he found out that Chris was hunting the Rogue that had wandered into town, he'd been wondering if Allison would be caught. If she had rushed home right after they dealt with him, she'd be covered in Hunter scents. And it wasn't like she knew she had to be extra careful about it; at least he could count on the boys to keep their wits about them. So far.

"Yea I think so, they didn't go into details but they found wolfsbane and they are certain that it came from Allison. They did try to hide it from me but they didn't do a good job, it only took a moment to break through their lie. Stiles was adamant that she didn't do anything to harm Scott, in fact, they seem pretty certain that she has no idea about their ties to the supernatural. And they are adamant that I tell you nothing so you have to pretend to still be in the dark about everything."

"I expected as much. I guess I should be glad that they even came to you. You were there for them in the beginning though so of course they trust you. If I hadn't forewarned you about Miss Argent, would you have kept it from me?"

"Guess we won't know," Deaton commented before hanging up. He had a soft spot for both Derek and Scott, and he knew that Allison wasn't a threat so he might've given the boys a day or two to figure it out before he called the Alpha to bail them out.

*Apartment*

"This is bad Scotty… real bad."

Scott whimpered, "Derek is going to kill us for letting a Hunter into the apartment!"

"Hey, this isn't our fault! The whole Pack met her, including Derek! Derek gave us _the nod_ \- you saw it! So that means she passed under his radar too, not just ours! Derek can't be too mad at us when he failed to spot her too."

"That's true, even Derek missed it. And he's a great Alpha, we've learned a lot from him over the years. If he isn't perfect, how can he expect us to be? And she's so sweet and nice, who could've possibly guessed she was a Hunter. When we helped her move in, she didn't bring anything Hunter-esque into the apartment, not that we saw…. We didn't go through her drawers or anything but I feel like we would've noticed if she had cases of weapons or vials of powders. So what do we do?"

"I'm not sure," Stiles sighed. "We've pretty much confirmed that she is a Hunter at this point… and we're on the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm like a pseudo Druid-in-training since Derek doesn't trust my batting skills to keep me safe and you're a Beta Werewolf. The three of us should not be living together, period."

"We can't just come up with some fake excuse to kick her out, that isn't right… She paid the whole month!"

"I know, I know! I completely agree. She has no place to go and, Hunter or no, she's been great and I'd hate to kick her to the curb. But even if we waited out the whole month, told her that something came up and gave her the next two and a half weeks to start looking, she'd want to know what's up. And we've got no real excuse for her. I think the issue is that we don't want her to leave… if it were anyone else that we didn't like as much, we'd probably have no problem coming up with a suitable lie…"

Scott nodded glumly, "And the fact that we're trying to keep this from Derek… he'd probably know what to do, how to deal with it… but since we don't want him to know about our big mistake, we can't ask him. That's probably adding stress to our thought process."

"Yea, exactly." The two of them sat on the couch, tossing excuses back and forth, trying to find one that wouldn't upset her too much but was also believable. Nothing sounded good to them, and some even made them feel gross just thinking about. It was Stiles who finally said what they were both thinking because he knew Scott could never bring himself to. "We only have one option… we have to sit her down and tell her the truth. We know she's a Hunter and we belong to a Pack, an unorthodox situation. I think at this point, the easiest thing is to be honest."

"Derek wouldn't want us to… that's supposed to be our biggest secret- we only got to tell our parents because he said it was okay and I know he only said that because Matt almost outed me to my mom. Better to tell them on our own terms, with him there to answer questions than for them to find out from a nasty surprise." Scott wasn't against the idea though, not at all- he wanted nothing more than to agree with Stiles and text her immediately. But as a Were it felt like it was going against everything Derek had taught him.

"Okay but he always tells us to trust our instincts and I mean… our instincts told us that she's a nice person… who, as it turns out, might also be a Hunter. I think our instincts were right and we should take them into account. I know that, statistically, not every Hunter is absolutely prejudiced. Like, she's gone out of her way to hide her secret from us and I think that's significant. She could be fairly open with her Hunter lifestyle with the average Human, bringing small weapons into the apartment, openly talking about 'hunting' and whatnot. She's done none of that, and it reminds me about how we hide our secret. So many people would be scared if they were to learn the truth about you and that's why we keep it a secret but we know that you have complete control and you'd never hurt anyone- you _haven't_ hurt anyone! But the risk of negative reaction is too great, it's the normal reaction for most people. If Allison is hiding her ties to the Hunter world, maybe it's because she's nervous about how people would react? Doesn't that kinda feel like the anti-Hunter personality? I think we should give her a chance, be open-minded; I know how much we appreciate when we can tell someone the truth without them looking at us like monsters." Stiles could tell he was winning his friend over so he pushed on, "Think about it, she's living with strangers instead of her own little 'pack' which says a lot. I have to believe that she's living on her own for a reason, like she's open to meeting new people despite knowing the risks which means she isn't just a cold-hearted Hunter. She's a person who happens to be a Hunter and not a Hunter full time. Just like you're a person that happens to be a Were, not a Were that's hiding in Human form."

Scott had no arguments; he too wanted to believe that she was different from the other Hunters they'd dealt with in the past. It couldn't be just because she didn't know about their affiliations and was only nice because she thought they were regular Humans. He was surprised that Stiles, the negative one, had pushed for it but he was glad that someone else wanted to believe in Allison. He'd have a hard time going against his Alpha's training if Stiles was very against trusting her. "Okay, we tell her the truth. We sit down and do our best to have a civilized conversation about it. How she reacts to our confession will tell us everything we need to know anyways, right? Identity doesn't matter as much as lifestyle in our world- I identify as a Were but I live like the average person, a calm lifestyle."

"Exactly, 100 percent what you just said. So we're telling her, now that we've got that settled, how do we go about it? Hmmm…" Stiles sat and thought a moment, trying to remember everything Derek had told them about Hunters, everything they'd experienced. "Most Hunters refuse to harm Humans unless they've proven to be as dangerous as the Pack they live with… not that there are many non-family Packs with Human members anyways… So we'll start by telling her that I'm Human and you stay behind me, that way, if she becomes aggressive, she'll have to shoot a deputy first to get to you. She won't be that stupid, I know it. I mean, I can't see her reacting aggressively anyways but just in case. You carefully monitor her silent reactions, that will tell us if she's trying to deceive us and she'll kill us the moment our guard is down. And if she does have any sort of negative reaction at all, we'll know that we were wrong about her and that she utterly hates Weres."

"Okay, my biggest issue with this plan is that… on the off chance she does hate Weres… now she knows our secret and she can identify the rest of the Pack so everyone is in danger. What happens then?"

Stiles smiled, patting his friend on the shoulder, "Scotty, if she becomes aggressive, I'm slapping my handcuffs on her and we're detaining her before she can call for backup. I can arrest her on the suspicion of the bloody clothes; Dad should have at least one report of an unsolved murder that we can try to pin on her, at least for the time being. If she seems to be more than we can handle, we'll tell Derek and see what he says. But, let's stay on the bright side and just hope for the best," he said with a smile. Scott could probably tell he was worried… he had never, in his life, ever managed to not worry. He always thought of bad scenarios and how any situation could always get worse. Once he'd started his training at the academy, it had only gotten worse. He did his best to hide it, not letting his over-active mind turn into outright paranoia, but it was hard sometimes. Especially since he was part of a Pack that had a history of finding trouble; it was really hard not to be paranoid around strangers.

But Scott didn't call him out on it, he was too busy trying to tell himself to follow Stiles's advice and not worry. Not everything took a downward turn in their life, they had plenty of ups to counter the downs… so they weren't cursed with the worst luck ever. There was a chance that this might actually all work out and he had to focus on that. To think about the alternative was too much for him. He watched as Stiles pulled out his phone to text Allison but he reached out a hand to stop him. "I can hear her, she's here."

Stiles was about to say something when Scott rudely clapped a hand over his mouth.

"She isn't alone…" He strained to focus on her voice, blocking out the other sounds in the building.

"Remember, just be cool, okay?" she said, "And remember, one of them is a deputy."

"Allison, I know what I'm doing," a feminine voice replied. "I just want to meet them- I promise I won't threaten to melt anyone with acid."

Before he could hear anything else, Stiles shook him and whispered, "Dude, is she bringing backup? Maybe she saw your eyes after all but didn't want to risk taking you down alone… quick, hide!"

"I have no idea, her friend mentioned something about melting people with acid?!" Scott choked out. "But she's with another woman and-"

"So? Obviously women can be Hunters!"

"No… remember, she said she was meeting her friend Lydia for lunch after class? I think that maybe, she's just showing her friend that apartment. I think. It seems like a dumb idea to make threats if you know there's a Were that can overhear you…"

Stiles narrowed his eyes, calculating the odds. Scott had a point but it could be a stab at intimidation… hard to tell when he didn't hear the actual words. "You go hide in your room, just to be safe. If it seems like things are going south, go out the window and call Derek."

"What?! I'm not going to leave you alone with them if it goes south!"

"They might take me hostage and try to get information out of me but I'm Human, the odds that they'll kill me are low. I'm sure I can stall long enough for you guys to find me. If you even _start_ to shift in front of them, they'll start shooting."

Scott whimpered and then lowly growled in frustration… he hated that Stiles was right. He hated that he'd possibly have to leave him but Stiles was trying to save him. There was always a chance that they'd shoot first and ask questions later but most Hunters didn't like to take risks. "Fine, but I swear, if they hurt you, they're going to regret it." He leapt over the couch and rushed to his room, leaving the door open so he could at least try to catch their scents when they walked in.

Stiles quickly turned on the tv and looked for something to watch, telling himself to breathe and act casual. Somehow he managed not to jump when the front door unlocked.

"Stiles, Scott, are you home? I'm back and I've brought a friend."

"I'm in the living room," Stiles answered, not commenting on Scott's whereabouts. "Is it our turn to meet your friends? About time!" He climbed off the couch, maybe a little too eagerly, trying to appear like his usual self.

"Yes, Lydia demanded that I bring her back to the apartment after lunch. I didn't say anything about it because she doesn't live here so I honestly thought she'd have to leave right after lunch. But here she is," Allison commented. She loved Lydia, she really did- they'd been friends for about 10 years now... but she was very judgmental and openly hostile towards anyone that didn't meet her standards. And Stiles and Scott weren't exactly the kind of guys that Lydia talked to.

Stiles didn't need Scott's Were abilities to see her nervousness, apparently her friend was a handful of some sort? After meeting all of his friends, he couldn't imagine that she was self-conscious about her own circle, but then he made eye contact with the woman that was standing next to her. All of Allison's stories made a lot more sense now that he knew what she looked like.

"Hi, I'm Lydia Martin, Allison's best friend, and you have to be Stiles."

"How did you know that?"

Lydia glanced up and down, "You're wearing extremely… shall we saw, worn-in, clothes, an obvious counter to the rigidity of wearing a uniform. When I heard that you were a deputy, you'd either be extremely rigid while on and off duty, or you'd be extremely laid back to create a distance. There's rarely a middle ground in my experience."

"Oh, you know a lot of cops then?" Stiles asked, ignoring the jab at his faded t-shirt, it was his favorite and he knew that it looked a little ratty after all the washings.

"Lydia, you said you'd be nice!" Allison interjected, not letting her friend answer.

"What? I was just answering his question, I haven't said anything mean." Lydia walked further into the apartment, taking in everything. "It's cleaner than I would've thought, you swear you didn't tell them to clean up before I got here?"

"I've told you, they aren't slobs and they don't make me do all the cleaning- see the chore chart is right there! You're just trying to find an issue with them…"

Lydia pouted, "No I'm not, I'm just making sure, that's all. It's not often that a woman lives with two guys when she isn't dating one of them. I don't want you getting taken advantage of. You know my parents would've let you stay with them at the new house- you could've waited until my fall break you know. I would've loved to help you find a place, I mean, surely there are nicer apartments than this that you can still afford." She held a hand out towards Stiles an instant later, "No offense. It's just that her parents' old house was absolutely fabulous and I know my parents spoiled her as well."

"Everyone is entitled to their own set of standards I suppose," was all Stiles commented. He didn't have much of an eye for fashion by any means but even he could tell just how much money and coordination went into her outfit. And it was supposedly just something she wore to meet up with a friend for lunch… He couldn't imagine what else she might have in her closet for the bigger occasions. It was no surprise that she was looking down her nose at their place but despite that, he couldn't help but be a little miffed.

Allison sighed patiently, "The other apartments weren't leagues better or worse than this, this is actually an average place. I have no doubt that if you were around, you would've managed to find some fabulous place that also gave me a bargain price but I think I did fairly well for myself. Especially since I actually get along with my roomies."

"Every house, or apartment, can use an upgrade, it's nothing to be ashamed of. If you're really planning on staying here, I can be persuaded into giving a few tips on how to spruce things up. That can come later though, I'm mostly here to meet you, and Scott, is he here?"

"Yea, sorry, I was listening to some music and didn't realize we had company, that's my bad," Scott called out. After listening to everything, he was certain that this was just a surprise visit from a friend and not a trap like they had feared.

Lydia held out her hand and shook both of theirs, now that everyone was present she got down to business. "Allison is a smart woman, I will not have you taking advantage of her just because you think you can walk all over her. She hasn't had anything bad to say about you so far but I know a lot of people try to be on their best behavior for awhile before eventually slipping back into their normal habits. We might not live in the same city currently because of school but we talk often and I'm fully capable of driving down here at a moment's notice if she needs me. Is that understood?"

Stiles smiled at Scott, "Well, this is a surprising turn of events…"

"What is?" she demanded to know- was he dumb enough to be underestimating her? Was he going to call her cute and make a snide remark about not being afraid of a slap? She might've promised Allison that she'd be nice but she might have to show them how scary she could be.

"Here I was expecting something a little more underhanded. You should know that Allison has told us a lot about you. Her favorite stories are from when you two were in high school and you had everyone fooled. Everyone thought you were the vapid Queen Bee but really you were a brilliant over achiever that kept her smarts hidden. You love fashion, it isn't an act, and you love that people make assumptions based on your attire and your makeup, but you're actually getting a Masters in some really smart math stuff. After hearing about that side of you, I really didn't expect you to be straightforward with your warnings. Seriously, I thought there would be a test where we didn't even know we were being tested."

"I'm guessing it's because it's Allison and not yourself," Scott added on. "You might be alright with people underestimating you and you'd run circles around people to confuse them when it comes to your personal affairs. But you aren't going to take that risk with her, you want us to know you're dead serious."

"Plus there's always the chance that we might be too stupid to realize she's testing us and then her subtle jabs would be wasted on us," Stiles laughed, seeing her relax a bit.

"I think I can see why Allison finds you to be, acceptable, roommates," she admitted. "You and I probably couldn't be more different and somehow Allison gets along with both of us. I know that means we have to be nice to each other, for her sake, but maybe she wasn't wrong when she said that we might get along. I'll admit that I was hoping you'd be one of the ones that makes assumptions based on my outfit."

"You shouldn't be so surprised, do you really think I just wouldn't tell my new friends about my best friend?" Allison scoffed, leaning over to nudge Lydia with her shoulder.

She shrugged, "They might have ignored you or didn't really hear you. You'd be amazed at how many people continue to ask if I'm in the wrong classroom. It's pretty ingrained to just take one look at someone and judge them; not many people have the mental capacity to _not_ judge someone after one look."

"Well they need to watch Legally Blonde," Stiles asserted.

Lydia giggled a bit, "Are you saying that because you think I love that movie?"

"Um, excuse you, I'm saying that because it's one of my favorite movies… not counting the superhero movies."

"Yea, it's hard to rank above the superhero movies," Scott told her, "But we do have both films over there on the shelf if you'd like to verify it."

Allison perked up, "Wait what? How did I not know that?" She should have known that Stiles and Scott could handle themselves. Lydia wasn't really anything like their group of friends, she was a handful in her own way… but they clearly knew how to adapt. And Lydia had actually smiled at one point! Not her sarcastic, phony smile either but a genuine smile. "Maybe when Lydia has more time we can do a small scale movie night because I won't let her lie to you, she does in fact love that movie too. And I say small scale because I don't know how she'd react to everyone- I didn't even know how to react to everyone."

"Gosh, don't spill all my secrets at once Allison," Lydia huffed.

"Oh, I'm sure Allison could talk about you nonstop for a year and you would still have secrets- you strike me as the type that gathers secrets professionally. Has anyone told you that you should look into a job at the CIA? I've known you for like 5 minutes and I just… it fits."

Lydia twirled a strand of hair around her finger, "That actually isn't the first time I've heard that."

The group eventually moved into the living room, talking about their various hobbies, a much tamer get-to-know-each-other compared to when Allison met the whole gang. And just like Allison had been herself with them, Scott and Stiles refused to be anything but themselves around Lydia. They wanted her to form an honest opinion of them in the hopes she might not disapprove of them. She could tell that her friend had some reservations about them but Lydia liked to take her time in judging people. She wouldn't immediately write someone off but she also wouldn't trust them until they've proven themselves to her. Allison counted it as a win that she had agreed to sit down and talk with them instead of quickly excusing herself to drive home. It had happened in the past- Lydia had _not_ liked one of her previous roommates at all. There was some stress about that for awhile but they'd found a way to work around it. Hopefully that wouldn't happen with these two though.

After an hour or so, Lydia did finally excuse herself, she had a bit of a drive and had a few assignments to review. But she promised to come back soon, complaining that she and Allison needed to hang out more often! Allison agreed and walked her to the door, hugging her fiercely before saying goodbye. "Thanks for always having my back, I really do appreciate it."

"Of course, we've been through a lot together, you know I have to give a stamp of approval for anyone you might be living with."

Allison smiled and waved as she walked away. Then she turned and closed the door, the smile fading as she saw Scott and Stiles standing in the hall with their arms crossed. "Oh, she wasn't that bad was she? I know she can come on strong but you guys did just fine."

"Allison… we need to talk…" Scott mumbled. It had been nice to meet her best friend but he'd been stressed out the whole time, just sitting on the time bomb… He thought he was going to explode and Lydia had only been around for an hour. Scott had to get the news off his chest before he went insane and he wished they could've met Lydia on a different day.

"No, you can't say that we need to talk after Lydia when I survived all your friends," Allison whined, confused. Honestly, she wasn't that bad, why did they look so upset.

Stiles held out a hand, "No, it isn't about Lydia. Promise. We were actually just about to text you before you came home. There's something we need to talk about and it has nothing to do with Lydia."


	4. The Talk

A/N: Parts of this chapter are sad and/or upsetting. Allison tells the boys about how she lost her mom and I made Kate and Gerard even more evil than they started out as in the show. The story isn't super detailed but it's not just a one-liner either, she gives the basic details about what happened that night. Obviously I had to change some things because Allison has never met Derek before so that meant Victoria was Bitten by someone else entirely XD I'm also changing it so Stiles and Scott don't know a lot about Derek's past. Derek is a good Alpha but he still keeps things close to his chest and doesn't like reliving the painful memories unless he absolutely has to.

Also, I saw a few different people commenting that they are hoping Allison and Scott might get together and I regret to inform you all that when I started writing this story, it was strictly platonic. Since it was written as a Secret Santa gift, the community basically decided that relationships should be excluded, just to make sure no one started any fights! So I feel like if I were to randomly introduce a romantic side to it now, it wouldn't feel natural, I've spent no time building that up. BUT, if enough people really want to see an alternate version of this story where Scott and Allison get together, I might be willing to write it :) It would be similar to this story but there would also be more focus on Scott and Allison and their feelings so the stories would have differences. I promise, it won't be like reading the same exact story with just a few new sentences sprinkled in, I'd take a whole different approach to it. Let me know if you're interested in reading a OTP version of this story and I'll add it to my list :)

* * *

Allison instantly tensed up, realizing that Scott had in fact been suspicious when she came home… she probably shouldn't have grabbed the trash bag, way too obvious… So now they wanted to know why she was coming home covered in blood. "Look, I'm sorry if I freaked you out Scott, that wasn't my intention, I can explain, please, let me explain."

"It's okay, we know the truth and we just want to talk. Really, we want to have a conversation about it, a _calm_ conversation," Stiles stressed, hoping she didn't panic. She looked confused still so she probably just figured she reeked of blood and Scott, being a vet, recognized the smell. He could see the gears turning in her head, she was trying to come up with a lie about why she was covered in blood and hadn't said anything. Slowly he positioned himself in front of Scott, covertly grabbing his wrist to signal to Scott. "This is really an unexpected situation for all of us."

Allison gasped as Scott's eyes flashed a warm amber, everything seemed to freeze… Scott was a Were… her roommate… was a Werewolf, and she was a Hunter. And last night she came home smelling like their worst nightmare. Those eyes pulled all of her focus for a few seconds as everything raced through her brain. She eventually noticed how tense Stiles was, and the way he was trying to cover all of Scott with his own body- he had to be Human and knew that she shouldn't be shooting him without reason. She held her hands up, palms visible, "I won't hurt you, I promise! I'm different!"

Stiles nodded, "That's a good start, like I said, we want to just keep things calm. We aren't trying to start a fight or anything."

There was a pause as the three of them looked at each other, unsure of what to say next. Scott spoke first, clearing his throat. "We figured it was probably the Rogue that you went after, right?" Scott asked, dimming his eyes. Might as well confirm what had happened last night before talking about the rest.

"Yea, my dad was getting anxious about him running around, we were keeping him updated on the situation. He'd been getting bolder, sneaking closer to homes and parks. Dad finally told us to deal with him- we had his history, he's attacked people in a few other towns, we are absolutely certain of that. He'd hoped that it could wait until he was back in town but he didn't want to take a chance that someone else could die if we waited. And since my dad is the one that runs our little band of renegade Hunters, I led in his place this time… which meant I was on point and things got a little messy." Allison frowned, still confused, "How did you know I was a Hunter? I get the blood tipped you off but I mean, that could've come from anywhere… Were blood doesn't have a specific smell, does it?"

Stiles waved her further into the apartment, not wanting her to be standing right by the door as they talked about this. So far their voices were still calm but it would still be better to get some space between them and the communal hallway on the other side of the door. Scott had given him a double tap on the back of his shoulder- Allison was being truthful as far as she could tell. So Stiles was willing to sit on the couch to talk. "No, Were blood doesn't have a different scent than mine or yours, not that we've been able to tell at least. There were traces of wolfsbane that he could smell, beneath the stench of blood. That's what tipped him off. And, sorry but when Scott told me about what had happened, I um… barged into your room… In my defense, I was only looking for hidden stashes of wolfsbane or mountain ash, nothing creepy."

"I think I can forgive you for that," she said slowly, sitting on the very edge of the couch. Neither of them seemed truly hostile but Weres didn't trust Hunters- that was how they survived. Since none of them had reacted to her last name, that meant that they didn't know about her or her dad, didn't know they were different. She didn't want to hurt them but if they became aggressive, she would defend herself. "I don't keep any of that stuff here; I decided awhile ago that I was going to draw a hard line between my personal life and Hunting. My home is my space, where I can relax and just be normal, which is also why I don't have a hoard of weapons in there either."

Scott scrunched up his nose, "The fact that you don't keep any here is the only reason why we didn't find out sooner I'm sure- that would've been a dead giveaway with my sensitivities. Although, I mean, we found a bit… on the windowsill. But I'm assuming that's from when you undressed and tossed your clothes out."

Allison's eyes widened in surprise and then she blushed, "Right, you would've heard all that… so, a small amount of wolfsbane is what tipped you off?"

"Yea," Stiles nodded, "If it was just the blood, we would've had questions- hopefully you weren't some serial killer. That'd be the perfect cover, living with a cop. But yea, once we found the powder, there was no question, that isn't something the average person has. I'll have you know that Scott and I agonized over what to do for hours while you were gone."

"Right," she looked down at her hands, willing herself not to tear up because she didn't want to look that pathetic. They probably already felt bad enough about it, but there was really only one way this could play out. "I don't really have anywhere to go…"

"You said you had a key to your dad's pla- OW!" Stiles cried out when Scott punched him.

"Dude!"

Stiles tried to glare but ended up grinning, "Okay, I'll admit that was in bad taste- it was a joke. Allison we aren't just going to kick you out. Y'know there's a reason why we finally decided on sitting down and telling you the truth. It would've been so much easier to just come up with a fake excuse to get you to leave. We didn't want that though."

"Wait, but I'm a _Hunter_ , I have helped kill Weres in the past… and you aren't going to kick me out?"

Scott smiled at her, "We weren't really sure what was going to happen… mostly we were just hoping that you were a genuinely nice person. Derek has always told us to follow our instincts and we couldn't imagine you turning nasty once you found out the truth. Stiles was prepared for the worst, which was why he was standing in first of me earlier, but truthfully we wanted things to be calm and cool. We still have some questions but, if you're willing to answer them, I'm sure the three of us can work something out."

"Yea," Stiles added on, pulling his cuffs out of his back pocket, "I was ready to detain you if it got ugly." He tossed them onto the table in a show of trust, he wasn't going to need those after all.

Allison sagged against the couch and started laughing, hard enough that she had tears coming out of her eyes. "I'm sorry for laughing, really, I'm just relieved. I had been trying so hard to keep this as my neutral zone and I had been so scared that Scott saw my bloody shirt or something. Then it turns out you guys are part of a Pack and like, I was so scared for a split second when I saw those eyes. Not because I was afraid of _you_ Scott, but like… just the realization that my 'enemy' has found out about me, my secret is out, y'know?"

"Oh, I completely know what that feels like, when I caught a whiff of wolfsbane I felt the same way. And there was also the fear that if you found out about me, then you'd also find out about the Pack, so it wasn't just my life on the line." Scott started to chuckle himself- they had been right about her!

"Um, now that the worst part of the surprise conversation is over… where do we go from here?" Stiles asked. Of course he was relieved just like the other two, Allison hadn't attacked them! But, things weren't solved just yet, there was still a lot that was up in the air.

"I… I guess I can explain myself but first I do want to say that I'm kinda hoping this can be something that we just ignore? I know that sounds absurd and it's beyond strange to think about, two opposites living together but… I don't want to leave." She paused, waiting for both of them to nod before continuing. Maybe things would be weird in the long run but for now they were willing to listen and discuss it with her, a definite win. "So my family is kind of a big deal in the Hunting world… We're one of the oldest families around and we've always been at the top of the list when it came to effectiveness and all that. I didn't know any of this until I was in high school by the way, my aunt decided to bring me into the fold against my parents' wishes and it was a big deal… anyways, so, my family's history is covered in blood and I'm not really proud of that. At first I had been terrified of Weres, my aunt and my grandfather told me all sorts of scary stories and my father didn't really do much to counter it. So I believed that Weres were bad and that we were the good guys, hunting monsters…" She hunched her shoulders, still ashamed after all these years, "I had no idea that you were just people too. My grandfather made it seem like you were all bloodthirsty and that you literally couldn't help it! It wasn't until my mom died that things changed for me."

Scott reached out and placed his hand over hers, overwhelmed by the sadness she was exuding. "It's okay, we can go slow."

She nodded in appreciation and turned her hand to grip his, "It's been 9 years and it's still really hard to think about. Um, I guess I should backtrack just a bit. So, my family's Code translates to 'We hunt those who hunt us' right, because you guys are supposed to be monsters. And because of that Code, anyone that isn't strictly Human is a thing that needs to be killed. I was blindly okay with that, until my mom got Bit by an Alpha. Everything came crashing down all at once and my grandfather said such horrible things about her! How she was just a husk and that if we didn't kill her then we'd be tarnishing her legacy. But my dad and I didn't want to, she was family! It didn't matter though, in the end… she killed herself. To protect us. Because she believed the things my grandfather said, that she was becoming a monster."

There was a moment of silence as they let her cry, Stiles handing her the tissues. After she looked ready to continue, he asked, "Can, can we know how she got Bit? I really don't want to sound insensitive because obviously you loved your mom but… how did you not hate Weres even more because of that?"

"Yea… that seems like something that would make you believe we're even more like monsters because we took your mom away- kinda," Scott added on.

"We had been tracking a small Pack and had finally cornered them in this abandoned house, in a really trashy neighborhood. We'd thrown some smoke grenades- wolfsbane ones obviously, and then stormed the house. And they'd given up, they were all huddled together, on their knees. Most of them just looked so hopeless because they knew they were about to die. There was no begging for mercy, not from the Argents. There was no fight left in them, not at all. We started shooting, leaving the Alpha for last- my dad told me later that it's because of the Pack bond you guys have… how the Alpha can feel each of the Betas dying, god that's so awful. It would've been fine except we heard someone coughing…" She closed her eyes, remembering it all as if it had happened in slow motion. "There had been a child, she was maybe 10? They had tried to hide her, hoping we'd miss her and she could escape. But because of the smoke, she had started coughing… My aunt stormed over to the closet and dragged her out- she was crying and grabbing onto the doorjamb. Aunt Kate pulled out a knife and, sh-she um… was going to kill her. But the Alpha got up and charged at her. Everything got hectic then, my dad and my mom jumped in because it wasn't like we could shoot, not without hitting Aunt Kate. In the end, the little girl and the Alpha were dead and my mom had been Bitten. Aunt Kate had gotten scratched but it wasn't lethal, Dad was unscathed. What sticks out in my mind is how they just wanted their little girl to survive- they were willing to die if it meant we missed her. It wasn't until my aunt pulled out the knife that the Alpha moved, because he couldn't just sit there and let it happen. I can't forget the look on my aunt's face, it was like she didn't even care- we aren't supposed to hurt kids, that's what my dad said! But I guess that wasn't how Gerard or Aunt Kate felt. It was their fault that my mom died, not the Alpha's, he was just protecting a little girl.

"My dad and I had a heart-to-heart after that and he confessed that he's known for years that his dad was wrong but didn't know what to do about it. There had been a few times- on solo hunts of course, that he let a Were go because they were able to prove that they had control, that they weren't bloodthirsty and that they hadn't killed anyone. He kept all that to himself though because that wasn't how Gerard ran the family business… And that was also the reason why he tried to keep me out of it for as long as possible, he didn't want me to become a killer. Mom's death was the final straw for him, we removed ourselves from Gerard and the rest, we don't Hunt with them anymore and we came up with a new Code. We found a few others who were open-minded about Weres and now we go by 'We protect those who cannot protect themselves.' We focus more on protecting rather than Hunting. There are still times when we have to kill dangerous creatures for the sake of Humans but it's our last resort I swear. Sometimes people are aggressive because of our last name, but we do our best to let our actions speak for us. It was hard for Weres to trust us at first, none of them wanted to, but we didn't let it stop us, we kept helping. And we'll keep helping, for as long as it takes."

Scott and Stiles sat on the couch, unable to say anything for a few minutes, shocked by the story. Scott just squeezed her hand in reassurance. Stiles ran a hand through his hair and let out the breath he was holding. "So, you're a good Hunter, I almost feel like that's makes you more of a cryptid than Scott, a true rarity!" Stiles joked, hoping to lighten the mood, just a bit.

Allison laughed, wiping her face, "I feel like a cryptid most of the time. We have to be careful- you wouldn't believe the number of hostile Hunters that we've come across. News spreads pretty fast and now that they know we're open to helping Weres and we've pissed off Gerard… they know they don't have to be nice to us at all. But we're also Human so it's not like they can really hurt us, not without breaking their own Code."

"Well, as a Were that's had his fair share of bad run-ins, I appreciate you and your dad. It's a relief to know that there are good people in the world. And it's a huge relief to know that we didn't endanger the whole Pack by being overly trusting. You didn't smell like a Hunter though!" Scott said sheepishly. He was supposed to be an experienced Were now, able to determine who was an enemy and who wasn't. If other Hunters were more careful with covering their scents then it would be harder for him to keep track.

"I keep a change of clothes in our warehouse so after I'm done handling all the powders, I don't bring it home with me. And that's not even because I don't want people to know- that is a risk, alerting an aggressive Were without me knowing, but that wasn't why I started that. I got tired of vacuuming my room because the powder gets everywhere…"

Stiles nodded, "Oh yea, I wear scrubs when I'm working with it. It was way more dangerous for me to bring it home and I learned real fast just how easily it clung to all my clothes."

Allison perked up at that, "I have to ask, and only partially to change the subject away from me, but how many of your friends are Weres? Now that I know you're a part of a Pack, it makes so much more sense! You all are very close, obviously."

"Um… everyone besides you, right?" Scott asked.

"Well, I guess that depends, they aren't all Were _wolves_ , just to clarify. Malia is a Werecoyote, and by the way, the reason she survived so long in the wild is because she shifted the night of the accident. She spent 8 years as a coyote and no one knew it-"

"Isn't a full shift really rare?!"

Scott nodded, "Yea, very rare, we aren't even sure why some people can do it and so many can't. But Malia was able to do it and no one had a clue. Peter happened to find her one night when he went to the crash site and just got this feeling so he flashed his eyes at her. And she flashed them back before running away. Derek had to roar at her after we cornered her and she was forced to shift back, which was why it was so hard for her to re-learn her manners."

"And Kira isn't a Were either, she's something else called a Kitsune, not sure if you've heard of them. But yea, aside from those two, plus me, everyone is the standard Were," Stiles explained.

"Wow, that's a pretty good size Pack you've got going. And it's mixed, that's surprising. We've rarely seen that, well I've rarely seen that, but I'm not as far-traveled as my dad. We, uh, we aren't going to tell them about me right? Because I'm not going to tell my dad about you… he was weird enough when he heard that I had moved in with two guys. I'm not looking forward to the first visit just because of that- there's no way I'm telling him that you're a Were."

"We weren't planning on telling anyone, no. We wanted to deal with this ourselves since it was basically our mess to begin with. Although… if we don't kick you out… what do we do about it? Like, that's a really big secret to just keep _forever_ y'know?" Stiles asked.

She nodded, biting her lip, "Yea, that is a bit of a problem. For the short term it works, I don't have to tell my dad and you don't have to tell your Alpha. But long term…? I can't keep that secret from him forever, he's smart and if he figures it out before I tell him then it'll be a disaster. I can't imagine that your Alpha would be gentle about the news either. But despite all that, can I celebrate that you aren't kicking me out? I still can't believe that we are deciding to do this! It's kinda exciting!"

"Yea, it is. I believe you when you say that you're different and we get along so well as people, why wouldn't we at least try? No one in our Pack has…" Scott trailed off, looking at Stiles.

Allison could guess at what he'd been about to say, "Someone in your Pack has blue eyes? You don't have to tell me if you don't want, I can see how that would be a secret you'd want to keep. But I feel like I know you and your friends very well- none of them seem like killers. Also, you don't seem like the type that would allow a bloodthirsty person to stay. Even Humans sometimes hurt people because of the circumstances and the law understands that. The supernatural 'laws' aren't as forgiving and innocence is harshly defined. My dad wanted to make sure I understood that; he told me a story about a boy- a teenager really, that killed his girlfriend. At first it sounds awful, or at least like he lost control but the girlfriend was dying. She was in a lot of pain and there was absolutely no hope for her. He did it because she begged him to because if he didn't, she'd be in agony for hours before dying. And he loved her so much, even though it broke his heart, he did it, to ease her suffering. But she was an innocent, a Human that did him no harm. So his eyes turned blued and his life was changed forever after that."

"Dude, what?" Scott gasped. He couldn't imagine something like that… taking another person's life- especially if he loved them.

"Right? It was pretty intense. Dad swore that it was a true story, one that he had heard personally. He wouldn't tell me who it was of course, I guess the name doesn't matter anyways… but the point was, I can also understand that there are scenarios where bad things happen. If you don't want to tell me, I won't hassle your Packmates or treat them differently. But you don't have to lie about it either, if someone has blue eyes, they have blue eyes."

"I… um… I think it would definitely fall under an unexpected circumstance and it's not really a secret that… they… are afraid of," Stiles said carefully, not even wanting to say 'she' because that would narrow the list down too much. There was no way he'd tell her about Peter or Derek- that was a complicated history! Peter had killed innocents but he'd also relinquished his Alpha power to Derek and was a changed person. Derek hadn't killed anyone since they'd known him but his eyes were blue before they were red and none of them were brave enough to ask about it. But Malia, they could tell her about Malia, right? Allison had shared so much with them and Stiles knew that Malia wouldn't care at all… she didn't really understand the concept of secrets. Scott didn't really have any secrets to share with her either so it was all Stiles could think of to show trust. "I know, in general, the supernatural aspect of ourselves is supposed to be kept secret but since you're already in the know, I don't think it matters too much?"

"Given the person that you're talking about," Scott said slowly, knowing that Stiles couldn't possibly be talking about Derek or Peter. "I think it would be okay to tell Allison the story. I mean like, she already knows half of it already."

Stiles gave a half-smile, "You've got a point there. Malia _caused_ the accident that killed her mom and sister because it was on the night of a full moon and the urge to shift hit her all of a sudden, like full force. She was only 8 when it happened and was completely unprepared for it, I mean, can you imagine just suddenly sprouting fur and teeth? She didn't know how to turn back and she was mostly a scared animal at that point anyways… so she ran off."

"Oh… that would explain how no one found her for 8 years. I was honestly wondering how a small child survived in the woods while also not being found by a search party back when Cora first told me the story. They were looking for a girl, not a coyote. How did she handle coming back?"

"Not well. She was angry at Derek for the longest time. Nothing was the same, no more fur, no more four legs, she had to wear clothes. Things were more complicated in every way, being Human again. But over time she adapted," Scott answered.

"The full moons were the hardest, because we had no idea how to explain an Anchor to her. But her dad came through for her after a few months, realizing that she just needed to understand that she wasn't stuck as a Human, she was still a Were and therefore still part Coyote too. Whatever used to calm her as a coyote would still work for her Human half as well. And thank goodness he was right because I felt so awful about her being locked up during the full moons. She was positive that she'd never learn control and she would just be locked up once a month for the rest of her life, she accepted that."

Scott leaned forward, realizing an important detail that she should know, "Malia hasn't killed anyone since the accident. She stayed away from Humans while she was a coyote and Derek spent a lot of time with her once she had shifted back to teach her the important rules. He taught her how to control her shift so that way she wouldn't get mad and lash out; then he explained the whole 'keeping it a secret' thing."

"I think that's the most important part, not that Malia has blue eyes, because of an accident, but that she was running wild for 8 years, _during her formative years_ , and that she managed to not kill anyone else. That's not only a sign of her Human willpower but of your Pack's control. You guys created a safe environment for her, helped teach her, led by example, and your Alpha stepped up. It's all cohesive, I've learned that by now, so hearing about her success is the bottom line," Allison stated. "I mean, given how well I get along with you two, it wasn't like I doubted the Pack but it's nice to have a solid example to tell myself that you're great people. Examples like that will help when it comes time to tell my dad."

"Y'know, I just realized, but hearing you say that, it just like popped into my head but… we basically have the same Code you guys do… informally at least. A lot of crazy stuff has happened in Beacon Hills in the past and at first it was pretty crazy, just trying to adapt to Scott being a Were and all that stuff. But then other things started happening and we could've just buried our head in the sand and ignored it but we didn't, it just wasn't right. Like shortly after Scott got good at being a Were, one of our classmates ended up transforming into a Kanima! That was a nightmare… but he wasn't hurting any of us so theoretically, we could've just said that it wasn't our business and moved on. People were dying though and we were the only ones that could handle the situation. So we did. And we continued to, over the years. We've embraced the weirdness that is our lives and use the powers to do good, to prove that just because the world says we're monsters, doesn't mean we are." There was a pause before Stiles corrected himself, "I keep saying 'we' but I'm a Human… more people would assume I'm a nuisance and not a monster if I'm being honest."

Scott nudged him, "You're a part of the Pack and that makes you one of us. The only thing that we keep in mind is that you're a lot more fragile than us so we have to work hard to make sure you don't do anything stupid! You've had some close calls because of people that would have gladly hurt you just to hurt us, don't forget that."

"I have been threatened a lot," he reminisced.

Allison smiled at both of them, "I think we're going to get along just fine!" While she had met a lot of friendly Weres over the years, there were very few that used their abilities in the same way she did. Honestly it felt like a sign more than a coincidence at this point; their two groups could make a great example for the rest of the supernatural world. Once they found a way to explain it to her dad, and Derek… It might be an uphill battle but she was certain that they could find a way to work together!


End file.
